Making the Telco Look Like One Big Whopping Switch

Making the Telco Look Like One Big Whopping Switch

By the end of this first section of this chapter, you'll know the basics of Frame Relay and how it behaves like a LAN switch in many ways. Before a LAN switch can switch frames between PCs or routers, the frames have to be physically connected to the switch. I'll start by explaining the equivalent in Frame Relay. The next section explains how the telephone company (telco) creates a Frame Relay service that switches frames to the routers that are connected to the Frame Relay network. The details of Frame Relay do differ from Ethernet switching, but many of the same general concepts apply.