Frame Relay Network

Frame Relay Network

Frame Relay is a standardized wide area networking technology that specifies the physical and logical link layers of digital telecommunications channels using a packet switching methodology. Originally designed for transport across Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) infrastructure, it may be used today in the context of many other network interfaces. Network providers commonly implement Frame Relay for voice (VoFR) and data as an encapsulation technique, used between local area networks (LANs) over a wide area network (WAN). Each end-user gets a private line (or leased line) to a frame-relay node. The frame-relay network handles the transmission over a frequently-changing path transparent to all end-users.

With the advent of MPLS, VPN and dedicated broadband services such as cable modem and DSL, the end may loom for the Frame Relay protocol and encapsulation. However many rural areas remain lacking DSL and cable modem services. In such cases the least expensive type of "always-on" connection remains a 64-kbit/s frame-relay line. Thus a retail chain, for instance, may use Frame Relay for connecting rural stores into their corporate WAN.

Frame Relay Network