VPN's, MPLS or Frame Relay
From Bandipedia
Should I use VPN, MPLS or Frame Relay?
Many IT professionals are faced with this question at some point in their network deployment plan. THE ANSWER IS: IT DEPENDS!
There are several variables that must be considered before one can effectively answer this question:
- What are the company's WAN objectives?
- Do we simply need to connect remote offices to a central location for server resource access?
- Are there any critical applications such as voice that must run across the WAN?
- Is cost a primary decision factor?
- How much bandwidth do I really need?
If you can answer all of these questions on the first pass you are ahead of the game. For those that need some guidance here are some pointers.
VPN
If your primary objectives include intersite connectivity to access common resources such as File Servers, Email Servers and the like, and you are working on a budget, then VPN is the solution you should consider. VPN is the method of using public networks like the Internet to establish private, encrypted links between sites. Hence the name Virtual Private Network, since we are establishing encrypted tunnels between sites using the public Internet as a medium to connect our sites. VPN is by far the most cost effective way to establish a private wide area network.
Frame Relay
If you require a private network but do not want to pay for dedicated private links to each location, you may consider Frame Relay. Frame Relay is an older technology and relys on the underlying assumption by carriers that not all customers will be using the full bandwidth of their circuits at the same time. Frame Relay uses an over subscription model. Carriers will sell you a CIR or Commited Information Rate on their Frame Relay Network. This rate is the bandwidth you are GUARANTEED by the carrier. For example if you purchase a 256 Kbps CIR from a carrier, all traffic up to that point will be guaranteed to be delivered. You may burst above your purchased CIR but in times of heavy network congestion any packets you send above the CIR will be eligible for discard by the carrier.
Frame Relay is a cost effective technology when cost is a factor, you can pay for a lower rate of bandwidth than with a dedicated point to point link but have the ability to burst up to 1.536K assuming there is no congestion on the carrier's frame relay network. Frame Relay has no quality of service (QoS) and is largely being replaced by the more cost effective VPN Solutions
MPLS
If you have Quality of Service (QoS) sensitive applications running accross your WAN then you should consider MPLS. MPLS is a private networking technology similar to the concept of Frame Relay in that it is delivered in the "cloud". The primary difference with MPLS is that you can purchase quality of service for applications accross your WAN. During the provisioning process the carrier will interview you in order to determine which appications are important to your business, they will then build a QoS template to service these applications on your WAN. These applications will be given priority over all other traffic in times of peak load. MPLS is by far the most costly solution between Frame Relay, VPN and MPLS but is the only technology that will support QoS.
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