From: Jim Taylor <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Frame Relay
Hi Cynthia, In my experience both Sprint and MCI have Frame Relay conformance suites that need to be run on your product before they are approved for connection to their networks. Sprint testing you can do on your own (hopefully you have a lot of spare time) by contacting Bob Nutzman at Sprint in Retson VA. I'd give you better information on the address, but I just changed jobs and my info is .... somewhere in the stacks. Sprint runs their FR suite on a Telenex protocol analyzer, and this is where the troubles begin. It seems to have a hard time when simultaneously running the test suite and receiving data from your product. Once you get your product running correctly you can capture the data to disk and send it off to Sprint for review ... along with a sample of the product which Sprint will check against their network. If everything gos well you should receive a certificate in about a month. Total proccess takes about 6 months .... because yer bound to have problems with the analyzer! Sprint also has a second certification proccess called SprintLink testing ... this is a different sort of beast, and you need to go to VA to perform the testing (that is...if they allow you to do it at all). SprintLink involves testing your product against the CISCO routers to ensure compatability. Ask Bob about it and he will pass you on to a man called .... Scott Engleman ... who can give you more details (FR testing must be reperformed). As for MCI, call John Combs at Inchcape Testing (TestMark in Lexington KY). I beleive he is one of the few/only labs approved to do the testing. Hope you can make it sense of that big blob above. If you need more info contact me directly ... I can give you a couple of hints to get the Telenex analyzer working ... its a real bugger. Its more of a time investment with Sprint, and your best bet with MCI is to talk to John. Jim At 04:03 PM 8/6/96 -0500, Cynthia Pleach wrote: >I have heard 2 different stories about certifying Frame Relay. >One story is that in the US the approval is a market driven >requirement and not necessary and one that says it >is mandatory and open you wallet and watch the money >fly out. > >Does any one out there know what the truth is??? > >Thanks >Cynthia E. Pleach >Manager, Homologation >Digi International > >email [email protected] > >
