Short for Multiprotocol Over ATM, a specification that enables ATM services to be integrated with existing local-area networks (LANs) that use Ethernet, token-ring or TCP/IP protocols. The goal of MPOA is to allow different LANs to send packets to each other via an ATM backbone. Unlike other techniques, such as LAN Emulation (LANE), which operates at level 2 of the OSI Reference Model, MPOA operates at Level 3.
