Pacific Telesis Group Inc’s San Francisco-based Pacific Bell Telephone says it will test the compatibility of IBM Corp’s 3745 Communication Controller with its latest software as part of its evaluation of the emerging high-speed, low-level Frame Relay packet-switching standard. Making the 3745 – successor to the venerable 3705 and the standard communications processor for IBM’s mainframes – compatible with Frame Relay will ensure that the companies’ mutual customers can interconnect computer centres without the need for a mesh network of private leased lines The test network will provide a system to examine how the 3745 can handle the virtual-circuit environment of Frame Relay, which operates at speeds from 56Kbps to 1.544Mbps. The test, which is due to be completed in June, will check compatibility with Ethernet local area networks, try out the transport of large files over the network, check on long-distance transmission delay, and study network congestion and network management.
