DataistransmittedoveranATMnetworkinATMcells.Acellisafixedsizeat53bytedatastructurethatcontains48bytesofdataand5bytesofcontrolinformation.Eachcell'scontrolinformationincludesavirtualcircuitnumber.ThisnumberisusedbyATMswitchestodeterminewherethecellshouldbesent,andisusedbyreceivinghoststodeterminewhichbuffersshouldreceivethedata(thusallowinginboundnetworkdatatobedemultiplexedinhardware).
Thevirtualcircuitnumberiscomposedoftwonumbers:thevirtualchannelidentifier(VCI)andthevirtualpathidentifier(VPI).AlldatasentoveranATMnetworkisassociatedwithavirtualcircuit.Therearetwotypesofvirtualcircuits:permanentvirtualcircuits(PVC)andswitchedvirtualcircuits(SVC).PermanentvirtualcircuitsareusuallysetupinanATMswitchbyanetworkadministrator.Switchedvirtualcircuitsareconnectionsthatareestablishedasneededthroughtheuseofsignallingprotocols
The48bytedataareaofanATMcellisquitesmallwhencomparedtothedataareaofanEthernetorFDDIpacket.ATMincludesanumberofATMadaptationlayers(orAAL).AAL5allowsahosttosendandreceiveframesofupto64Kinsize.WhenahostsendsalargeAAL5frame,theATMhost-networkinterfacebreaksitupintoATMcells.Whenthecellsarriveatthereceivinghost,thesecellsarereassembledbythereceivingmachine'sATMhost-networkinterface.AAL5allowshoststosendandreceiveframesandnotworryaboutthesmallATMcells.
OneadvantageofATMisitsuseofvirtualcircuitsmakesiteasiertoprovidenetworkperformanceguaranteestoapplications.EachactivevirtualcircuitonanATMnetworkcanbeallocatedafixedportionofthenetwork'sbandwidth.