Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) provides connections for reliable transfer of streaming data, such as television. With speeds ranging up to 10Gbit/s it is mostly used by telcos. 155 and 622Mbit/s are most appropriate for television operations. Unlike Ethernet and Fibre Channel, ATM is connection-based: offering good Quality of Service (QoS) by establishing a path through the system before data is sent.

Sophisticated lower ATM Adaptation Layers (AAL) offer connections for higher layers of the protocol to run on. AAL1 supports constant bit rate, time-dependent traffic such as voice and video. AAL3/4 supports variable bit rate, delay-tolerant data traffic requiring some sequencing and/or error detection. AAL5 supports variable bit rate, delay-tolerant connection-oriented data traffic – often used for general data transfers.