Overview

Since 1992, two major developments have rolled into the carrier networks. The first was the implementation and rollout of Frame Relay networking protocols. Frame Relay met with immediate success because of its ability to handle Wide Area Networking data traffic, replacing (or complementing) older X.25 networks. The network suppliers had to upgrade their equipment to support the newer protocols in their packet switches. Although Frame Relay met with instant success, as described in Chapter 11, "Frame Relay," it was introduced as a data-only service for the WAN. The commitment to equipment and labor to upgrade the network became a very heavy burden.

As with most carriers, network equipment has traditionally been depreciated over a 20-year period. Thus, when Frame Relay began rolling into the marketplace in 1992, the depreciation window opened with an end-date of 2022 and counting. Frame Relay was deployed in every major network around the world because of its flexibility and cost advantages over the older protocols. The result was a widely deployed and well-accepted international standard for data communications.

The second major development introduced also in 1992 was ATM. ATM is a robust set of protocols that works in more than the WAN, but is designed to work across the various platforms of network from the LAN, CAN, MAN, and WAN. Because it was designed as a transport set of protocols to work at layer 2 of the OSI equivalent model, ATM both competes with and complements the use of Frame Relay. Yet, ATM goes...