It may help to remember that Frame Relay is a packet-switched technology.
In fact, if you think about it, "frame relay" sort of means the same thing
as "packet switch."
Packet switching divides messages into packets and sends each packet
individually. The packets may take different routes and may arrive out of
order. Although Frame Relay may seem like it's circuit-switched, you really
only have a "virtual circuit." You have an actual circuit between your
equipment and the provider's equipment at the Central Office or wherever,
but after that it's virtual. The core of the provider's network may use a
variety of technologies, including ATM, SONET, etc. Anything could happen
to your packets.
The other common communications method is circuit switching, in which a
dedicated channel (or circuit) is established for the duration of a
transmission. The best-known circuit-switching network is the telephone
system. ISDN is also considered circuit-switching. But Frame Relay replaced
the older packet-switched X.25 and retains some of its packet-switching
characteristics.
Well, I have a bad cold, so I hope I didn't ramble too much. I'm under the
influence of Histafed. But hopefully this was helpful, nonetheless.
Priscilla
>John Jarrett wrote:
> >
> > Could someone please clarify something for me about Frame-relay?
> >
> > I had always understood that traffic over frame-relay was unsecure and
> > needed to be encrypted if it was of a critical nature. Is frame-relay
> > always a shared network? I had thought so but I have recently had a
> > someone explain to me that they did not need to encrypt the data because
> > they "owned" the cloud that the pvc ran through. He said that it was a
> > point to point connection and therefore not over a shared network. All
> > of our connections are setup using sub-interfaces and point to point. I
> > still thought that it was over a shared network. This did not make a
> > lot of sense to me.
> >
> > Any help would be appreciated. Any links to good documentation would be
> > helpful as well.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > John
> >
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Priscilla Oppenheimer
http://www.priscilla.com
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