Are standard DS1, DS3, and OC3 SONET or ATM Circuits?

[Jim Matuska]

Are standard T1's, DS3's and OC3's going into standard Cisco Router interface cards such as on 7200, 2800/2900, 3800/3900 considered SONET or ATM?  Can anyone provide a brief overview of the difference between these?  

Several carriers are discontinuing their ATM and other legacy services and it makes me wonder how do you tell if circuits are ATM or SONET and what is the difference?  

[Joseph W. Doherty]

If you're working with a physical connection to a DS, ATM, SONET, etc. link, you would need an interface that supports that physical media.

What you might encounter today, is a WAN provider providing an Ethernet hand-off, but the provider's network might not be using Ethernet.

[Jim Matuska]

The physical handoff is DS1, DS3, or OC3 (very limited Ethernet provider handoff in our area).  I was just wondering if this handoff would be considered SONET or ATM since providers seem to be discontinuing a lot of their ATM circuits, even though they tell me this shouldn't affect us, it got me thinking as to how we determine if a circuit is SONET or ATM and what the differences between them are?  

[Joseph W. Doherty]

". . . how we determine if a circuit is SONET or ATM . . ."

You would find that out from your WAN provider. [It helps to know what interface you need before a circuit in installed. ;) ]

". . . circuit is SONET or ATM and what the differences between them are?"

Doubt I could do justice to that question in a short reply. You should be able to find out much information about both if you search the Internet. For example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asynchronous_Transfer_Mode
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronous_optical_networking
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_Carrier_transmission_rates

[Jim Matuska · Accepted solution]

It turns out the local carrier uses SONET rather than ATM, not really sure if much ATM is used around here.  I had a feeling that was the case since the interface on my OC-3 router has a POS interface card (Packet over Sonet, I hope that means LOL).  

Thanks for the info.