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Frame Relay Broken Down

Devry University

Frame Relay Broken Down

Frame Relay is defiantly a cost effective approach to making our connections. It has become the most widely used WAN connection. This is because of the flexibility it offers with speed, price, and overhead. It will provide us with many connections running over the same cable. This is done by utilizing DLCI (data link connection identifier). This DLCI is only used to determine the connection, and allows multiple connections over the same line. Usually this is done over virtual circuits (VC). These virtual circuits come in two varieties. The permanent virtual circuit and the switched virtual circuit.

With the permanent circuit you are paying for a constant connection and use of dedicated switches to maintain the link. Whereas switched virtual circuits are more cost efficient. They are circuits that are used for a short time to complete communication. When they are not in use they can be used for other connections, while the permanent circuit cannot.

ISP's keep the cost down by charging by CIR (committed information rate). This is the rate that they guarantee for the service. The higher the CIR the more the price, but we can tailor the amount provided to that we need. This isn't the case in an ATM (asynchronous transfer mode). ATM can provide the highest bandwidth, but it is at a premium.

Leased lines is a very secure option, but there is a lot of overhead involved with it. Leased lines are a dedicated line and that provides connection from one point to the other. This means it would be very secure, but there can be huge delays in getting it going. It can take months to get everything worked out and up and running. With Frame Relay you won't have to worry about as much overhead. Because it can support multiple connections over the same cable you will not have to have as much equipment as the other options.

While leased lines provide one of the best security...