Frame relay is the expression on everyone’s lips in the data communications world, but what exactly is it? Frame relay is a technology for transmitting packetised data using an architecture borrowed from Integrated Services Digital Network that offers substantial performance advantages over X25 packet-switching: the advantage of frame relay over X25, in which packets are sent from node to node and checked constantly for errors and for the destination address, is that frame relay packets are only cursorily checked at each node and then passed along with no need to wait for an answerback, so data can be transmitted at up to 2.048Mbps over lines that go that fast, and it is now feasible because fibre optics have improved line quality so much that data errors are fewer.
