TANDBERG D11624 - Manual (Page 4)

Tandberg Video on Frame Relay
D11624 rev.01 4
2. Background on transmission of video over frame relay
The successful transmission of digitised voice over public frame relay data services the
past few years has drawn attention to the question of whether video services can be
transmitted over the same link.
Voice, data & video over
frame relay
Digitised Video is not new. It has been used for several years by a myriad of users on
ISDN or leased line connections. The common international standard for the
compression of video and accompanying voice is H.320. Frame relay is not new either. It
has been in existence for several years, and is now one of the most widely deployed data
transmission means in the world. What is new, and revolutionary, is the ability to take a
standard H.320 video stream, "packetise it", and route it over a frame relay network.
Historically, frame relay has been developed and sold primarily as a data transport
technology and service solution. This should be viewed primarily as a marketing and
positioning technique, not a fundamental technical limitation. All of the technical
challenges of using frame relay to transport video have been met. The marketing
challenge is to expand the perceived scope of frame relay beyond a "data only" image.