X.25 Vs. Frame Relay Packet Switching
Both X.25 and Frame Relay provide connection-oriented packet switching, also known as virtual circuit switching. A major difference between X.25 and Frame Relay packet switching is that X.25 is a reliable protocol, based on node-to-node automatic repeat request, while Frame Relay is a non-reliable protocol, maximum packet length is 1000 bytes. Any retransmissions must be carried out by higher layer protocols. The X.25 protocol is a network layer protocol, and is part of the X.25 protocol suite, also known as the OSI protocol suite. It was widely used in switching networks during the 1980s and early 1990s, for example as an alternative to circuit mode terminal switching, and for automated teller machines. Frame relay is a further development of X.25. The simplicity of Frame Relay made it considerably faster and more cost effective than X.25 packet switching. Frame relay is a data link layer protocol, and does not provide logical addresses and routing. It is only used for "semi-permanent" connections, while X.25 connections also can be established for each communication session. Frame Relay was used to interconnect LANs or LAN segments, mainly in the 1990s by large companies that had a requirement to handle heavy telecommunications traffic across wide area networks. Despite the benefits of frame relay packet switching, many international companies are staying with the X.25 standard. In the United States, X.25 packet switching was used heavily in government and financial networks that use mainframe applications. Many companies did not intend to cross over to Frame Relay packet switching because it is more cost effective to use X.25 on slower networks. In certain parts of the world, particularly in Asia-Pacific and South America regions, X.25 was the only technology available.
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