ATM can be viewed, for routing purposes, as a packet-switched connection-oriented network. That is, virtual channels need to be allocated for users to establish end-to-end connections. Contrary to common misconceptions, ATM is a very complex technology, perhaps the most complex ever developed by the networking industry.

ATM is deployed in order to utilize its unique characteristics. ATM provides scalable bandwidth that spans both LANs and WANs. It also promises Quality of Service (QoS) which guarantees bandwidth on demand. Without proper network planning and configuration, the specific bandwidth needs of multimedia applications can crowd out other traffic by reducing its available bandwidth, or other traffic can absorb all available bandwidth, not saving enough to allow consistent quality of service for the multimedia applications.