OpenReach Introduces New Frame Relay Application Suite

February 25, 2002 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- OpenReach, Inc. (openreach.com), a leading provider of virtual private network overlay services, announced on Monday the release of its Frame Relay Plus service, a suite of overlay applications designed partly using VPN technology, to enhance, extend, fortify and secure existing networks, targeted at the $20 billion installed private data communications market.

Frame Relay Plus, says OpenReach, is the first in a series of new application suites designed to address global enterprises’ most complex and demanding data communications challenges. Built on OpenReach’s “fluid networking” technology, Frame Relay Plus can be deployed either locally or globally with any carrier’s frame relay network to increase bandwidth, improve reliability, increase security and extend coverage.

To overcome the increasing demands that new bandwidth-hungry applications are placing on existing frame relay networks, Frame Relay Plus, says OpenReach, taps the current overcapacity of the world’s IP networks to complement existing frame relay implementations. The suite is based around three core applications: FrameFlow, a bandwidth and performance enhancer; FrameAid, a backup for network failures; and FrameGuard, a security overlay that protects data from both external and internal attack.

OpenReach FrameFlow, says the company, can improve the capacity of existing frame relay networks tenfold by automatically offloading high-bandwidth traffic to an OpenReach VPN, while directing delay-sensitive transactional traffic to existing frame relay circuits.

OpenReach says its FrameAid provides a highly reliable and secure frame relay backup using low-cost broadband connections. Unlike a passive backup solution that is enabled when the primary network fails, FrameAid is an always-on solution that is actively monitored, measured and recorded, always ready to take traffic in the event of a network failure.

OpenReach FrameGuard, says the company, provides end-to-end security for the backbone, last mile, and the last yard, protecting sensitive traffic from insider attack from within the LAN and across the frame relay network using digital certificate authentication encryption of transmissions between networks.

With customers in 40 states and 28 countries, OpenReach provides network overlay services that augment or replace existing data networks, extending coverage, increasing capacity and reducing operational expense.