Frame relay and ATM interworking

Frame relay has proven to be a very successful wide area networking service, and ATM is gaining momentum in the industry to become the preferred common backbone technology for supporting a wide variety of network services, including native ATM cell relay service and frame relay service. In the years ahead, ATM is poised to become the dominant networking technology. Since frame relay and cell relay services will coexist for a long time to come, it is imperative that the network and service interworking specifications be defined and implemented. This article focuses on the topic of frame relay and ATM cell relay service and network interworking. The authors provide the rationale, the standards-based methodology, the major open issues, and a likely evolution scenario for the interworking of frame relay and ATM cell relay networks and services