kozel@milano.cisco.com (Edward R. Kozel) (09/17/90)
[ This is a bit wordy, but it was difficult to edit without harming the information content ] FOUR COMPANIES SET FRAME RELAY STANDARDS FOR PRIVATE AND PUBLIC NETWORKS Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 4 -- Northern Telecom, Digital Equipment Corporation, StrataCom, and cisco Systems, four key players in the new frame relay data networking technology, are taking the lead in ensuring compatibility among public and private networks. The four companies today announced agreement on common specification for frame relay connections to link customer premise equipment such as bridges and routers to networking equipment such as central office switches, fast packet networking systems and packet switches. This represents the first agreement between private and public network suppliers on a common implementation of the frame relay interface standard. The participating companies see this as a significant step toward meeting the needs of corporate network managers for flexibility in building voice and data networks. The four companies invite vendors with frame relay products or with plans to implement frame relay to join in their effort to solidify the standard for the technology early in its deployment. This would help consolidate the market around a common interpretation of the standard, provide assurance of compatibility to network managers and form a basis for other suppliers to ensure market compliance for their products. The joint specification document is available from each of the four companies. Frame relay is a new high performance data communications service that is ideally suited for corporate data networks, particularly local area network (LAN) interconnect applications. Networks based on frame relay provide communications at up to 2.048 megabits per second (Mbps), bandwidth on demand, and multiple data sessions over a single access line. Frame relay improves network performance through reduced delays, more efficient bandwidth utilization and decreased communications equipment cost. Agreement on frame relay implementation specifications allows corporate network managers maximum flexibility in choosing networking equipment and services from these four vendors and any other vendor that implements this specification. As a result of today's announcement, users of Digital's routers and cisco's line of multiprotocol router/bridges will be able to connect their equipment to StrataCom IPX based private networks or to the public network via Northern Telecom's SuperNode central office switches in the local and interexchange telephone networks. Corporations with hybrid (public and private) data networks will especially benefit from this flexibility, while other companies can more easily develop hybrid networks. The joint specification enhances the basic American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the International Consultative Committee for Telephone and Telegraph (CCITT) recommended standards. In addition to basic frame relay capabilities, it addresses Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) Layer 1 (physical) connections, customer network management functions and service enhancements such as data packet broadcasting. The joint specification is open to other vendors and will evolve to comply with frame relay standards as they become fixed. StrataCom Inc. is the leading fast packet and frame relay supplier. The company manufactures, markets and services the IPX fast packet networking system and has already announced frame relay agreements with Digital Equipment Corporation, US Sprint, cisco Systems, Vitalink Communications Corporation and CrossComm Corporation. StrataCom is based in Campbell, California. Digital Equipment Corporation, headquartered in Maynard, Massachusetts, is the leading worldwide supplier of networked computer systems and services. Digital offers a full range of computing solutions and systems integration for the entire enterprise -- from the desktop to the data center. Cisco Systems, Inc., is the leading supplier of high-performance, multimedia, and multiprotocol internetworking products, including routers, bridges and terminal servers. Cisco technology can be used to build wide-area networks linking an unlimited number of geographically dispersed LANs. Northern Telecom is the leading global supplier of fully digital telecommunications switching systems, providing products and services to telephone operating companies, corporations, governments, universities and other institutions worldwide. Northern Telecom, with 1989 revenues of $6.1 billion, employs more than 49,000 people around the world.