what is atm in computer network

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a high-speed, connection-oriented switching technology in computer networks. It uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing to encode all information, including data, voice, and video, into small, fixed-sized cells of 53 bytes. Unlike protocols that use variable-sized packets, ATM's uniform cell size enables faster hardware switching and predictable performance with low latency, which is crucial for real-time applications. It establishes a virtual circuit between two endpoints before beginning data transmission.