Voice over Frame Relay

Voice over Frame Relay is a packet switched WAN protocol which allows the network to carry live voice traffic over a Frame Relay network.

Frame relay is a Data Link Layer protocol that is built on the existing CCITT X.25 and ISDN standards (Miller, 1991). It was designed for LAN-to-LAN internetworking across the WAN and it's normally used in commercial data networks because of its flexible bandwidth, using network resources more efficiently by merging a number of channels of voice traffic with data and passing on the result over an existing frame relay network and finally because of it is low-cost, however it is primarily recommended for star topology networks.
Unlike the Internet frame relay guarantees throughput and minimum delay, furthermore because of using Permanent Virtual Connections (PVC) between sites frame relay network is more secure than the Internet. [1]

Rather than trying to digitize the whole voice sample, low bit rates are achieved by analyzing and processing only the necessary components of a voice sample. Following the removal of repetitive patterns and silent periods, the remaining speech information then digitized and placed into voice packets suitable for transmission over a frame relay network. [2]

Furthermore frame relay technology was designed for data transmissions and not voice. However through the use of Voice Frame Relay Access Devices (VoFRADS), voice to be packetized and travel over a frame relay network, however the quality of voice traffic is not guaranteed.

References

1. RAD data communications rad.com, http://www2.rad.com/networks/1995/fram-rel/future.htm
2. A Discussion of Voice over Frame Relay 2000 http://www.mfaforum.org/frame/Whitepaper/4017.shtml