Originally designed to work across ISDN interfaces, Frame relay is used over a multitude of different interfaces, as a high performance packet switched technology that operates at the Physical and the Data link layers of the OSI model.
The two methods of packet switching are:
- Variable length packets
- Statistical multiplexing
Frame relay is often referred to as the bursty protocol, or the 'one' that replaced X.25, since it is much more streamlined than X.25.
Frame Relay devices fall into 2 different categories:
- DTE (Data terminal equipment)
- DCE (Data circuit-terminating equipment)
The DTE is typically found at the customer premises, where as the DCE is carrier owned (Telco). The DCE has the ever
important role of providing the clocking and the switching services.
The following diagram shows the relationship between the DTE and the DCE in a Frame Relay Packet switched WAN.
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