Each frame contains an address that the network uses to deliver to the correct destination. The frames travel through a series of frame relay switches before reaching the endpoint. Frame Relay offers high throughput, reliability and flexibility that is perfect for a variety of today's business applications. A frame relay network is often depicted as a cloud or frame cloud. This is because of the nature of a frame relay configuration and the many layers between the connections.
Frame relay consists of logical paths within the cloud called virtual circuits.
These types of applications require high bandwidth, followed by idle time on the network. More complicated applications may find this approach costly and inefficient, with limited network management diagnostics. This means making additions and changes in the network easy and transparent to user, giving IT Managers the flexibility to modify the network easily and scale as applications grow and sites are added. New PVCs may be added for new sites, alternate routing, new applications or additional bandwidth. The CIR is the level in data traffic, which the provider agrees to handle over a period of time without discarding packets.