Integrating Your Network
Frame Relay was introduced in the early 1990’s, as a new data technology that was to be a temporary fix for data connections. It was supposed to be a temporary technology until a new technology could be developed. To the surprise of everyone, Frame Relay proved to be an effective solution. “The growth in Frame Relay use over the past two years has exceeded all expectations, with thousands of companies turning to this efficient, cost-effective service to fulfill data communication requirements.” (Motorola, 1998) Frame Relay provides improved performance, and makes network management less complex. With these benefits, Frame Relay has become a highly utilized type of network in today’s corporate world. The rapid growth in Frame Relay can be attributed to the “need to connect remote office local area networks”. (Micom, 2000) This growth will continue as users understand the benefits and are able to take full advantage of those benefits. “Between 1994 and 1996, the number of worldwide companies using Frame Relay services has grown 10 times from 1,480 to 14,847.” (Micom, 2000) According to the Frame Relay Forum, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting Frame Relay acceptance and implementation, Frame Relay networks grew by more than 350 percent between 1993 and 1994. The majority of this growth took place in the United States, although every country in Europe has at least one Frame Relay service, Japan has approximately 25 providers and throughout the world, Frame Relay has become more attractive with the addition of voice communications to the network. Frame Relay is a fast packet –switching protocol used for transmitting data packets in high-speed bursts across a digital network. It is based on the standards of previous switching protocols ISDN and X.25. (Micom, 2000) It provides a method for routing frames of information across a wide area network. The packet
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