Technology Comparison
Notes:
Slide 3. Competing Technologies
The following table covers the high points of today’s competing data technologies. For the most part, X.25, private Line, and SMDS continue to serve specific end user markets whose needs are aligned with the strengths of these technologies. While frame relay has opened opportunities to support new business applications, much of frame relay’s success has come at the expense of other technologies.
Compared with frame relay, ATM and IP are in the early stages of market acceptance for business applications and connectivity. However, ATM and IP each have their own zone of advantage over frame relay. ATM offers scalability and inherent QoS capabilities while IP-based services offer any-to-any connectivity and enhanced features such as directories and security.
But frame relay has done much on its behalf by supporting some of these features (standards-based or vendor-specific) and capabilities supported by ATM and/or IP to accommodate changing end user needs and networking environments. These features include higher speed interfaces (up to DS-3s), prioritized PVCs, frame relay QoS, and SVCs.