WHAT IS FRAME RELAY?
"Frame Relay is a protocol oriented, packet-switched technology offered by telephone companies. " To understand this definition one must clearly understand what these highly technical cords mean and what they mean together. "Protocol Oriented" means the rules of the road, the format and or the procedures that show how information should be transferred through communication and devices of communication. In other words, protocols ensure that what was intended to be sent is what was really sent. "Packet-switched technology" is transmitted data is sent in packets or frames and are labeled on the network with an identifier or with the use of an address. This helps to make sure that information reaches the right place or destination.
In everyday life we can call frame relay very simple programmed software at the telephone company that is there to provide efficient, digital connections from one point to another. It should never be confused with the Internet, it is not the Internet.
Along with all other things, frame real also has a history and a story to be told. It has moved over the years from "Analog to Digital". What we first knew of frame relay was that to do with telephone lines. This method was updated and surely made more efficient and effective. What we know today is frame relay in a digital, high speed transmission. One example of this, is ATM which means Asynchronous Transfer Mode. This is used for multimedia and graphics. To understand the transition from analog to digital, one must also understand the advantages of digital.
Frame Relay revolves around to major ideas. These are PVC's, permanent virtual circuits, and CIR, which is Committed Information Rate. Circuit in this is called virtual because if has no wires or cables. Committed Information Rate is the communication rate that the telephone company contracts and negotiates that allows transmission.
We can look at frame relay with the example of a library. Their are no modems that hook the central library to the branches, instead we look at it as a frame relay cloud. Within this cloud there is switch at the telephone company that allows the transmitting of information through a modem there. Their is no duplication of equipment, because the switch provides for the "routing of data". In the times before we used a "time division", with this there was contingent and allocation if a portion of the bandwidth or space. Now, we use the CIR to best utilize the bandwidth. To understand this better, one must visualize frame relay messages sent out in packets. There are so many accepted packets being received based on the amount of bandwidth space. Frame relay in respect to this can save a person a lot of money, because of the fact that there is less need for so much equipment. This saves with the actual buying of equipment and with the maintenance of the equipment. Major advantage to this relaying of information, besides the financial aspect is that you have high transmission speeds with low network delays, high connectivity and efficient use of bandwidth.
Where is Frame Relay used?
Frame Relay is most often used with companies that are part of a LAN, local area network. Frame relay allows for all employees to access information in the LAN. Frame relay sees the company as one big LAN. All of the following software can utilize frame relay--GroupWare, e-mail, document sharing, database, and others.
One major contribution that frame relay has made to our society is the asynchronous transfer mode (ATM). ATM is a cell based high speed network that transfers voice, data, image, and video information. ATM is different than frame relay, because it has fixed 53 byte cells. Because these packets are a fixed size the delay time is also fixed. This is ideal for transmitting voice and video. ATM users prefer to use the frame relay rather than the ATM equipment because of the bandwidth constraints.
Frame Relay also involves LMI extensions, these allow more accessibility to large, complex internetworks. LMI extensions are as follows: Virtual circuit status messages, multicasting, global addressing, and simple flow control. Virtual circuit status messages provide information and synchronize the network and the user. This device prevents the sending of data into black holes. Multicasting allows a sender to transmit a single frame to be delivered to multiple recipients. This device supports the routing of messages that are sent to different destinations to be done simultaneously. Global addressing allows for connection identifiers to have a global significance. This allows the network through frame relay to be noticed as a LAN in regards to addressing. Simple flow control has a device that controls the entire frame relay interface. This allows for some flow control.
Frame Relay Hands On
What is Frame relay doing in the business world. In the magazine Implementing a Frame Relay Network there are two very interesting articles about frame relay in a school district and frame relay in a jewelers business. These two examples show the reader that frame relay is not just a computer topic, but also a concern for many businesses. Today as a part of our everyday life it affects are money transfer to and from the bank, through the use of ATM. The schools, libraries and even a jewelry store can and will be affected by this invention.