Atom

Atom again is a word which is quite versatile, that is, in different context different meanings can be attributed to this single word, for example if this word is used in the chemistry then it would refer to the smallest part of the substance, however, if this word is used in the computer world, then it is the name of a processor, which was introduced by the Intel first and this word when used in the networking world means something totally different. This article will only deal with this word with respect to the networking world, that is, what does the term mean when we talk about it with respect to the networking world.

The term Atom can be written in two different ways in the networking world, they are AToM and atom. These two terms are totally different than one another and should not be confused with one another.  Firstly, let’s take a look at the term AToM.

AToM is an acronym for the Any Transport over MPLS. This technology was developed by the Cisco System Inc. The main reason for this technology development was to come up with a way to transport the layer 2 packets over an IP/MPLS backbone. This technology is used extensively as it reduces the operational cost, as it can be used to combine multiple disparate data networks on to a single MPLS based backbone. AToM is also known by the name of layer 2 MPLS in the market.

Secondly Atom is the name of the XML based web content and metadata syndication format and along with that an application level protocol. This protocol is used for updating, editing and publishing the material which is uploaded on the websites periodically. All the XML documents present in the computer are recognized by the atom+XML media type.