Technology advances always threaten to overturn business as usual.

As Yogi Berra once said, "It's déjà vu all over again!" After all, wasn't it only about a dozen or so years ago that the arrival of Frame Relay and all its promises caused us to ask whether Private Lines would survive?

Well, if history repeats itself we can expect Frame Relay to be around for some time to come. But will history repeat itself this time, or will Frame Relay exit the scene swiftly? Most traditional network providers are currently offing a relatively new technology, Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) that is giving Frame Relay a good run for its money.

Like Frame Relay, MPLS is a virtual networking protocol that allows companies to connect offices via a "network cloud". Unlike Frame Relay, MPLS is based on IP routing at the packet level (layer 3), as opposed to the frame level (layer 2). In addition to routing enhancements, packets from various applications are uniquely identified, offering the ability to define rules and priorities as to how they are processed within the network. Most Frame Relay networks could easily be replaced by an MPLS network and with minimal changes to customer-owned equipment.

MPLS offers many benefits over Frame Relay, which is why we see companies making a rapid transition to this new offering. While price is not yet the defining element, it is growing in importance as cost go down quickly.

Here are the key benefits we see to MPLS:

• "Any to Any" Connectivity - When you wish to add connectivity between two existing nodes in a Frame network, a new PVC must be ordered and installed, increasing costs and work for both the vendor and customer. Since MPLS is an IP based protocol, any device not limited by security concerns can directly reach any other device via the network's inherent routing tables, meaning less work for everyone.
  
  
• Higher Reliability, Better Survivability - All frame relay networks (even those based on ATM) require sophisticated routing tables that define alternate routes in the network to be used in the event of congestion and network failures. IP based solutions such as MPLS offer much improved and faster disaster recovery methods.
  
  
• Better Data Prioritization - The ability to prioritize data, a must for latency intolerant applications such as VOIP or H.323 video conferencing, allows the customer to define rules as to which packets are allowed to burst up to the full Committed Access Rate, as well as which packets can be delayed. This prioritizing helps boost uninterrupted packet streaming when most necessary (after all, we don't want an Investor Relations video conference call to disrupt a hot and heavy game of Quake...or is it the other way around???).
  
  
• Cost Savings - For companies running a mesh topology with 3 or more PVC's per location, MPLS can already a more cost effective choice than Frame Relay. As providers continue to expand these networks, prices are dropping, while at the same time increasing prices for Frame. If this trend continues, we will soon see even simple MPLS Hub and Spoke topologies become cheaper then their Frame Relay counterparts.

Unfortunately for Frame Relay, MPLS isn't the only predator around. Many providers, particularly the ones who never built large Frame/ATM networks, are offering "pure" IP networks. These networks, which break away from the constraints of standard Time Division Multiplexing are in many cases capable of speeds up to 1 Gig delivered directly to a customers Etherswitch or Router via an optical interface.

So will Frame Relay survive? Probably, but mostly for Hub and Spoke networks with small bandwidth requirements. And as far as history repeating itself one more time, look for my article entitled " Will MPLS and IP Survive?" just a few more years down the road…

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