Integration of new telecommunications services into computer networks

New, high performance, telecommunications services are emerging for the transport of data. Frame relay, which originated in CCITT, has been used for some years in constructing private data networks while, more recently, public frame relay services have been introduced. Switched multi-megabit data service (SMDS) has been defined by Bellcore in the US as a public, packet switching service with corresponding specifications now being developed for Europe. Experience has been gained in numerous trials and public services are already available in the US with European services being planned. These data networking services are briefly introduced. Their distinguishing characteristics are described primarily from the perspective of the customer premises equipment (CPE) that connect to the networks. Approaches are discussed for the integration of these new services into common computer network protocols