Table of Contents:

Definition and Overview

1. Introduction

2. Why Are SLAs Important?

3. What Are the Basic Components of Frame Relay SLAs?

4. What Service Levels, by Components, Should Be Negotiated with the Service Provider?

5. Carrier Compensation: What Does It Mean?

6. How Can We Ensure That the Service Provider Is Meeting the Agreed-upon Service Levels?

7. What Are the Next Steps in Implementing and Monitoring Frame Relay–Service Levels with the Service Provider?

Self-Test

Glossary

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The emergence of distributed processing and intranet-based applications has resulted in increasing reliance on wide area networks (WANs) for delivery of critical business information. The WAN has, therefore, evolved into a key corporate asset. Network performance and reliability impact not just messaging and simple database transactions but information from suppliers required for just-in-time manufacturing as well as inventory, accounting, and sales information.

The proliferation of distributed application and database systems also has resulted in the emergence of public network services such as frame relay. Frame relay was designed to meet the needs of network managers struggling with the necessity to build redundant, reliable networking services nationwide and globally. This technology has brought cost-effective global, redundant, high-performance networking to corporations who, in the past, would have built costly, meshed private-line networks.

Unfortunately, the migration to public services does come with challenges. By utilizing frame-relay services, network managers lost the ability to control the performance and reliability of the public-network infrastructure. This has resulted in unhappy end users, angry executives, and pressure on network managers contending with the complexities of router, switch, and server management and maintenance.

Today, carrier services with embedded management capabilities are emerging to enable a process for WAN service-level management. These services help network managers in three areas: determining what the WAN service levels need to be (planning), monitoring these service levels to ensure compliance (verification), and isolating what the problem is when service levels are not met (troubleshooting). The key management component that documents what WAN service levels should be is the service-level agreement (SLA).

Figure 1. The WAN Service-Level Management Process

Network managers who are considering implementing SLAs for their WANs should look closely at these new carrier services. This guide will assist the reader in negotiating meaningful SLAs with their service providers.