Frame Relay Forum Announces Two New Implementation Agreements; Four Existing Agreements Amended to Enhance Scope and Versatility.

Business/Technology Editors

FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 12, 2000

The Frame Relay Forum, an organization of users, vendors, and providers of frame relay services and technologies, today announced it has agreed upon two new Implementation Agreements and made amendments to four pre-existing Implementation Agreements.

Implementation Agreements FRF.17 and FRF.18 were recently passed by the Frame Relay Forum. FRF.17, The Frame Relay Forum Privacy Implementation Agreement, provides authentication and encryption facilities that may be used over a frame relay virtual connection, both permanent and switched, to discourage unauthorized data observation. FRF.18, the Network-to-Network FR/ATM SVC Service Interworking Implementation Agreement, defines switched virtual connection (SVC) and soft permanent virtual connections (SPVC) service interworking between Frame Relay and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) technologies at the Network-to-Network Interface (NNI).

"Agreeing upon these two Implementation Agreements is an important step in the advancement of Frame Relay," said Tim Mangan, president and chair of the Frame Relay Forum. "Enterprise customers will be confident in knowing that the information they send via a frame relay virtual connection will be secure, and that the data will be read only by the intended recipient."

In addition to the two new Implementation Agreements that were passed, the Frame Relay Forum made amendments to four other pre-existing Implementation Agreements to further the scope and versatility of frame relay. These Implementation Agreements are FRF.1.2, FRF.3.2, FRF.4.1, and FRF.8.1.

FRF.1.2, the Permanent Virtual Connection User-to-Network Interface (PVC UNI) Implementation Agreement, was ratified by the Frame Relay Forum in order to enhance interoperability by describing an agreed-upon set of features for frame relay PVCs that will be implemented industry-wide. These enhancements make it possible to handle the large number of PVCs that will be common on high-speed interfaces, for example when frame relay is used over SONET/SDH.

Another important enhancement to FRF.1.2 is related to PVC configuration. Until now, provisioning a new PVC or changing an existing PVC was a time-consuming and error-prone process; a new feature of FRF.1.2 streamlines the process, making provisioning faster, easier, and more accurate. This feature enables routers and other frame relay user's devices to be automatically configured from the network with the appropriate traffic and quality of service (QoS) parameters.

FRF.3.2, the Multiprotocol Encapsulation Implementation Agreement, was passed to expand the number of other protocols that may be carried within frame relay, which further extends frame relay's utility as an all-purpose carrier of other data networking protocols, such as IP, SNA, Voice over Frame Relay, and X.25. This agreement also simplifies the process of supporting more protocols in the future and adds support for multiprotocol encapsulation to frame relay SVCs in addition to frame relay PVCs, which were already supported by FRF.3.1.

With the latest version of FRF.4.1, the Frame Relay Switched Virtual Connection User-to-Network Interface Implementation Agreement, the Frame Relay Forum added new features to support frame relay QoS and improve interworking with ATM SVC.

The Frame Relay Forum has also made some enhancements to FRF.8.1, the Frame Relay/ATM PVC Service Interworking Implementation Agreement, to improve the flexibility of the translation between frame relay and ATM data transfer protocols.

About Frame Relay Forum

The Frame Relay Forum is an association of vendors, carriers, users, and consultants committed to the education, promotion, and implementation of frame relay in accordance with international standards. The Forum was incorporated in May 1991 as a non-profit mutual corporation and has members worldwide. Offices are located in North America, with Market Development and Education Committee's located in North America, Europe, and Asia, and independent chapters serving the Pacific Rim and Japan located respectively in Australia/New Zealand and Japan. For more information on the Frame Relay Forum, membership, or for a copy of the implementation agreement, please contact the Frame Relay Forum at 510-608-5920, or on the Internet at www.frforum.com or via e-mail at [e-mail].