The PA-A1 ATM provides a single ATM network interface for the supported platforms. ATM is a connection-oriented environment. Each VC is a private connection to another node on the ATM network. Each ATM node is required to establish a separate connection to every other node in the ATM network with which it must communicate. Each VC is considered a complete and separate link to a destination node.
Users can encapsulate data across the connection as they see fit.
The ATM network disregards the contents of the data. An AAL defines the conversion of user information into cells. The AAL segments upper-layer information into cells at the transmitter and reassembles them at the receiver. An ATM connection transfers raw bits of information to a destination router or host. Unlike a LAN, which is connectionless, ATM requires certain features to provide a LAN environment to the users.