Technology - Data 1 - Introduction and Frame Relay

Synopsis

Frame Relay predates ATM and is widely used for carrying a mixture of traffic types, including packet- and circuit-switched data, to customer sites and within WANs. This report discusses Frame Relay’s Quality of Service (QoS) with Permanent Virtual Circuits (PVC), Committed Information Rate (CIR) and Switched Virtual Circuits (SVC). Frame Relay’s generally higher efficiency than ATM is discussed in the context of the move towards MPLS and TCP/IP backbone networks.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
  
• 2. Introduction
  
  • 2.1 Circuit versus packet switching
    
  • 2.2 Cells, frames and packets
    
  • 2.3 ISDN primarily for voice, not data
    
  • 2.4 Technologies for data communications
    
  • 2.5 Voice increasingly being carried as packets
    
• 3. Frame relay
  
  • 3.1 Introduction
    
  • 3.2 Switching packets and cells
    
  • 3.3 Permanent and Switched Virtual Circuits – PVCs and SVCs
    
    • 3.3.1 FRAD – Frame Relay Access Device
      
    • 3.3.2 Charging
      
    • 3.3.3 PVC – Permanent Virtual Circuit
      
    • 3.3.4 CIR – Committed Information Rate
      
    • 3.3.5 SVC – Switched Virtual Circuit
      
  • 3.4 Applications and futures
    
    • 3.4.1 Frame Relay compared with ATM
      
• 4. Related reports