The first seminar on "Architecture and Protocols for High-Speed Networks" was held with the purpose of discussing important questions concerning the next generation of digital computer networks. The main topics of the seminar were:

• Switched networks, in particular ATM
• Local and Metropolitan Area Networks
• New Network and Transport Layer protocols
• Network applications, in particular multimedia applications
• Protocol implementation on multiprocessors, and
• Formal description techniques.

Those topics are in the center of interest for research and implementation of communication systems. This is proven also by the fact that in the very same week the "Second IEEE Workshop on the Architecture and Implementation of High Performance Communication Syubsystems" was held in Williamsburg, Virginia (USA). The exact duplication of topics of interest in both events made it difficult or impossible for some of the invited US experts to attend the Dagstuhl workshop. Nevertheless, 32 participants came from many European countries (including Eastern Europe), from the USA, Canada and Australia.

It was the purpose of the seminar to bring together telecommunications engineers and computer scientists, two groups of people who not very often have a chance to talk with each other. One of the hot topics during the seminar week was the status and future of ATM (Asynchronous Transmission Mode). Analytical and simulation models for the performance of ATM switches were presented, the status of ATM demonstrators in the framework of the RACE project in Europe was reported, and the ATM public service offering by PTTs was the subject of much debate. Although ATM was initially designed to provide a wide-area high-speed telecommunications infrastructure, all the practical experience reported by the participants was with ATM switches in a local environment.

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