From: Dave Siegel <dave@rtd.net> Subject: Re: ATM Wide-Area Networks (was: sell shell accounts?) To: salo@msc.edu (Tim Salo) Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 10:22:23 -0700 (MST) Cc: dave@rtd.net, agislist@interstice.com, nanog@merit.edu [...] Even with the improved buffering, if you fill your pipe into the ATM switch, your ATM switch still becomes a packet shredder, compared to the more graceful packet drops seen on a clear channel line. [...]
"Good" ATM switches are doing Early Packet Discard and Partial Packet Discard. You can ask your favorite switch vendor for details, or look at the following for a nice summary: http://www.fore.com/html/atm-edu/whitep/FTBMWP.html -tjs I am not quite sure how an ATM switch becomes a "packet shredder," or even what a "packet shredder" is...