What Is Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS)?

When it comes to data, you need more than a high-speed connection. It would be best to have a high-speed connection that's also fast. That's where Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS) comes in. It's a service that provides organizations an easy way to exchange large amounts of data over a vast area network (WAN) on a non-constant or burst basis. With SMDS, you can rely on your Internet provider to get the job done right—no matter how much data you're transferring or how many people are sending it. Unlike other services that require significant upfront investments, SMDS is usually provided as a value-added service by telephone companies and other Internet service providers (ISPs). That means there's no need for expensive equipment or bandwidth upgrades—you'll have everything you need right out of the gate! Imagine you're a commercial bank. You have a central headquarters and several regional offices and must keep the data flowing between them. You could spend money on a dedicated vast area network (WAN) connection for each office, but what if only one or two offices need to send data at any given time? You'd be wasting your money! So instead, you use SMDS technology to send data from one location to another only when needed. You can connect SMDS between each office and the central headquarters. Whenever one office needs to send data, it can use public telecommunications facilities (like telephone lines). The other offices will continue using their local area network (LAN) connections so they won't be paying for WAN connections they don't need! SMDS is not a protocol; it's a telecommunications service.SMDS is a communication method used by any protocol supporting connectionless communications. It's analogous to sending letters through the post office without verifying the correct receiving address. That's right—you don't have to build your protocol to use SMDS! That's why we say it's like a Post Office: they handle all the work, so you don't have to.