The modern telecommunications world is a complicated place, overloaded with jargon and bewilderingly full of different technical options and opportunities. Many experts are only experts of small domains and within limited geographies. For newcomers it is often difficult to gain a grasp on the basic principles and even harder to unravel the mysterious technical paradoxes and the apparent contradictions of many modern technologies. My greatest hope in writing this book is that you, the reader, will find help and insight amongst its pages. I wish for no greater commendation than your thoughts that you find the subject of A TM presented here in an accessible and readable form. I hope also that the comprehensive glossary will remain with you, as your wayfinder through all that jargon! Martin P. Clark Frankfurt, Germany 20 December 1995 Acknowledgements No book on Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) could fail to recognize the invaluable contribution to this technology and to world standardization as a whole made by the International Telecommunications Union and the ATM Forum, and you will find references to their work throughout the text. Particular copyright extracts are labelled accordingly, but the full texts may be obtained (as relevant) from ITU Sales and Marketing Service, Place des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland or from ATM Forum, 2570 West EI Camino Real, Suite 304, Mountain View, California CA 94040, USA.

The Bigod Chronicles is a novel with an epic sweep of medieval history that places real characters into actual events. Book One Ilger, takes our story across two continents,from the religious dogma of the west to the fearsome brutality of the crusades. Antioch has fallen to the crusader army and for now the killing is over...but at what cost? Typhus is taking the lives of thousands and Ilger Bigod d'Ige lies dying on a soiled straw mat. Hugo de Payen witnesses the miracle of his survival and takes young Ilger under his wing. Believing Ilger was spared for a divine reason, Hugo watches helplessly as the innocent knight unwittingly joins the forces of evil in Jerusalem and seems determined to corrupt his soul...all the way to the edge of hell. In England, a young and troublesome Hugh Bigod vies with William his elder brother for the attention of their father. What begins as sibling rivalry descends into a grown-up world of abuse and bitter recrimination, from where there is no turning back.