Introduction to Frame Relay

Frame relay is a synchronous HDLC protocol based 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. Data is sent in HDLC packets, referred to as "frames".
Frame relay technology was developed to specifically address these needs :
- A higher performance packet technology.
- Simpler network management.
- More reliable networks.
- Lower network costs.
- Integration of traffic from both legacy and LAN applications over the same physical network.

Advantages of Frame Relay

Frame Relay offers an attractive alternative to both dedicated lines and X.25 networks for connecting LANs to bridges and routers. The success of the Frame Relay protocol is based on the following two underlying factors:
- Because virtual circuits consume bandwidth only when they transport data, many virtual circuits can exist simultaneously across a given transmission line. In addition, each device can use more of the bandwidth as necessary, and thus operate at higher speeds.
- The improved reliability of communication lines and increased error-handling sophistication at end stations allows the Frame Relay protocol to discard erroneous frames and thus eliminate time-consuming error-handling processing.

These two factors make Frame Relay a desirable choice for data transmission; however, they also necessitate testing to determine that the system works properly and that data is not lost.