Overview

Frame Relay is an efficient technique used to send digital information over Wide Area Networks (WAN). It is designed to carry voice and data traffic from customer Local Area Networks (LANs) by encapsulating (wrapping up) the traffic in Frame Relay frames to carry them over the WAN.

Frame Relay was developed in Australia in the mid 1990’s as a more cost effective network connectivity than the classic ISDN and DDS point to point networks. Primus Telecom through Eclipse Telecommunications was the first carrier grade Frame Relay network operating in Australia.

Initially, the early Frame Relay networks were supplied as “Bandwidth Only” networks and the customer would provide and manage their own routers. Currently, Frame Relay is one of several Layer 2 delivery protocols used to provide access to Private IP and Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) networks, typically for speeds below 2Mbps.

A key advantage of Frame Relay is the concept of Committed Information Rate (CIR). This permits customers to only buy the “average” bandwidth required to a given site, while the network permits the link to “burst” (transmit data at a higher rate) for short periods of time, helping to reduce network costs while providing better network performance.

Primus Frame Relay is a carrier class offering, providing end-to-end or access circuit solutions and as part of hybrid solutions combined with Primus ATM, PIPN (MPLS) and Internet services. When combined with the Managed Router Service, Primus Frame Relay and other network products provide a flexible and reliable network foundation for application delivery.

Features & Benefits

• Network provides point to point or point to multipoint type networks;
• Frame Relay is ideal for building hub and spoke and partially meshed networks;
• Can form a part of other networks such as ATM, MPLS (PIPN);
• Provides a cost effective way of connecting sites to a wide area network where DSL is not available;
• Sites are defined by Access Link Speed at a given site and Committed Information Rate (CIR) from the site to the Central Site (the hub);
• Access Link speed is limited to 2Mbps, but can theoretically be supplied as any multiple of 64kbps up to 2Mbps;
• Australia wide access coverage with link speeds from as little as 64kbit/s;
• Frame Relay combined with Managed Router Service can readily integrate into a modern MPLS network with Quality of Service and guaranteed bandwidth;
• The Access Link Speed at the Hub can be less then the sum of the Access Link Speed at all the branches, providing financial savings;
• For larger or more bandwidth hungry applications, the central Hub can operate on ATM, while the smaller lower speed branch offices can use Frame Relay. The network dynamically translates all traffic from Frame Relay to ATM and back as required.

Pricing

The Pricing of Frame Relay services consist of three components:

• Network Fees
• Access Fees
• Equipment or Router Fees

Frame Relay Network Fees – this is the price of the guaranteed bandwidth that has been reserved in the network. The pricing is based on the network costs due to distance and geography in maintaining the Frame Relay network to the specified locations.

Frame Relay Access Cost – this is the cost of the access tail that is used to connect the customer site to the network. Access tails suitable for Frame Relay transmission include SHDSL, E1, fractional E1 and Nx64k services (e.g. DDS).

Equipment or Router Fees – this is the cost of the supply, installation and configuration of the equipment, as well as the ongoing maintenance, management and monitoring of the device and the rest of the network. Primus currently supports the use of Cisco and Adtran routers.

As a Frame Relay network is a custom designed solution, please contact Primus on 1300 65 44 24 to discuss your data networking needs.