The difference is that they own the Frame Relay network and can control provisioning etc. Your experience with Frame Relay has been colored by the fact that your Telco is in control of the Frame Relay "Cloud". As several others have stated in the list here UUNET is using it to aggregate users into POP routers and to switch packets across the backbone as much as possible and route only when necessary. The problems they seem to be having now are due (possibly) to some problems with the software in the BSTDX switches and probably their own success. It is pretty tough to grow a network like theirs quickly enough to keep up with the overall growth of the Internet without some problems. That said I hope they get it fixed soon. They were, at one time, our best provider and they have slipped to our worst. ------------------------------------------ Chad Skidmore VP Operations & Engineering Data Source, L.L.C. http://www.dsource.com cskidmore@dsource.com

-----Original Message----- From: Joe McGuckin [SMTP:joe@via.net] Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 1997 4:34 PM To: nanog@merit.edu Subject: Re: Another UUNET Explanation

I've noticed that several of the larger networks use frame-relay.

Why? Our experience with frame-relay with the local telco has had mixed results.

What technical advantages does a frame-relay network have over an IP routed network?

Thanks!

Joe