IMA

The term IMA has many meaning attached to it which varies with the place of the situation where it is used, however, this article will only deal with this term in context to the networking world, where IMA is an acronym for Inverse Multiplexing over ATM.

ATM basically is a asynchronous mode of transmission of data over the network, between the two end points, therefore this IMA is a specification which is specifically defined by the ATM Forum that provides a way to combine the ATM cell stream over two or more circuit, thus allowing an organization to lease just the amount of the bandwidth that is needed for the job. In simpler words IMA is a method of optimizing the data transfer rate for individual subscriber in the networks, by diving the data in to the multiple concurrent streams which will carry the data to the destination point, where all the pieces would be recombined with one another to give the original data stream.

In this way only a limited amount of bandwidth that is needed to get the job done is leased by the organization which reduces the operational cost while increasing the output and the efficiency at the same time. The IMA technology can work with voice, video and other data transmission modes that are used in the network by the devices or the administrators of the network.

Now Cisco Systems is also making the routers that are compatible and useable with this IMA technology. The IMA can work with all types of physical transmission media including cable, fiber optic, satellite and plain old telephones services more commonly known as POTS. In addition to these properties of IMA there are certain other features as well, which are fault tolerance, traffic consolidation, enhancing the network reliability and minimizing the complexity and data redundancy.