| Emerging new applications for a mature technology. Frame relay has recently emerged as a popular interface choice for today's high-speed services, including videoconferencing, SNA networking, voice-over data, and high-speed Internet access itself. Stressing services rather than bits and bytes, this book reexamines this mature technology in light of these new applications. It contrasts frame relay with alternative technologies, demonstrates how to use it to tackle real business problems, and explains how frame-enabled systems can be exploited for cost-effective solutions.
What do an accountant sitting in a small home office accessing the Web, a sales representative at a branch office checking the latest home office price list, and a hospital worker ordering medication from a supplier’s remote server all have in common? Whether they are aware of it or not, more and more often the links from place to place in these environments are provided by a frame relay network. In the near future, this list might easily extend to corporate executives holding a videoconference, commercial artists manipulating images, and even college students calling home. In fact, all three of these things are done on frame relay networks now, just not routinely or in all environments.
At a lower level than the user application scenarios above, a frame relay network can support LAN interconnectivity for Intranet router-to-router traffic, carry financial transactions for a corporate SNA network, or carry digital voice overseas, and all faster than before and at a fraction of the price of almost any alternative. How can frame relay do all of this so well? That is what this book is about. |