What is synchronous asynchronous analog and digital technologies?

Many people, particularly in the Internet protocol-design community, considered this vision to be mistaken. Their argument went something like this: We know that there will always be both brand-new and obsolescent link-layer technologies, particularly in the LAN area, and it is fair to assume that not all of them will fit neatly into the synchronous optical networking model that ATM was designed for. Therefore, some sort of protocol is needed to provide a unifying layer over both ATM and non-ATM link layers, and ATM itself cannot fill that role. Conveniently, we have this protocol called "IP" which already does that. Ergo, there is no point in implementing ATM at the network layer.