A practical introduction to the technology, standards, and implementation issues of one of the fastest-growing segments of the communications industry - frame relay communications. This reference is designed for network designers, administrators, and implementors faced with the task of improving the performance of their applications and the networks that support them. Providing a detailed tutorial on the CCITT and ANSI standards, the book analyzes the major functions of each specification and provides the latest information on the standards with guidelines on how to fit them into information systems and networks. Also presented is a comparison of frame relay with X.25, Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS), and Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI); details of the major functions and design issues of frame relay; and the outlook for the future.