Telecom Finland is pioneering Frame Relay fast packet-switched service in Europe, using Campbell, California-based StratCom Inc IPX networking systems supplied by StratCom’s Frame Relay partner Digital Equip ment Corp. StratCom told Electronic News that it had supplied five systems so far and expected to ship at least five more. Frame Relay is a system that reduces the number of address and error-checking bits and the number of packets that can be sent at a time compared with X25, the simplification meaning that transmission can be much faster. The Finnish service is currently offered at 64Kbps and 1Mbps but it is planning to add 2Mbps service next year. The new service is an enhancement to the PTT’s existing DataNet local area network interconnection service, which is based on five StrataCom IPX nodes that offer up to 120 Frame Relay ports. Frame Relay operates at Layer Two of the Open Systems Interconnection seven layer model, which means that any higher-level protocols can be used over the system, and X25 and IBM Systems Network Architecture controllers can be connected over the Frame Relay backbone network.
