Frame Relay

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Introduction

It was initially designed for transmission across Integrated Services Digital Network(ISDN) infrastructure i.e. Frame Relay originated as an extension of integrated services digital network (ISDN).

Frame Relay is a standard or technology applied in wide area network (WAN) that specifies the physical and data link layers of digital telecommunications channels using a packet switching methodology.

Frame Relay techniques transmits data in the form of frames(a variable-size data unit).
Frame Relay technology provide a telecommunication service in cost-efficient way for data transmission between local area networks (LANs) and between end-points in a wide area network (WAN).
The Frame Relay network handles the transmission over a frequently changing path transparent to all end-user extensively used WAN protocols.
It has very simple structure and hence less expensive than leased lines service so it is more popular.
Due to the advent of Ethernet, VPN, Broadband DSL etc. technology, Frame Relay has now become less popular in recent time.
Frame Relay is a fast packet switching technology of data transmission.

Each Frame Relay consists of the following fields:-

Flag Field: The flag is used to indicate the beginning and end of the frame with the unique pattern.
Address Field: Each address field may occupy either octet 2 to 3, octet 2 to 4, or octet 2 to 5, depending on the range of the address in use.
Information Field: It defines the maximum information field size that a host can pack into a frame i.e. at least 262 octets but Frame Relay recommends that the network support the maximum value of at least 1600 octets in order to avoid the need for segmentation and reassembling by end-users.
Frame Check Sequence (FCS) Field: This error detection mechanism is used in Frame Relay technique that uses the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) method.

Frame Relay is mainly used to connect LANs with major backbones(to interconnect diverse network), as well as on public WANs and also in private network environments with leased lines.
Frame Relay switches create virtual circuits to connect remote LANs to a WAN.