Telecommunications network case study: Selecting a data network architecture

This paper documents a model that was pivotal in deciding which of two arch itectures should be selected for a frame relay data communications network. The choices are either to continue using the current architecture, or to m ake a large incremental investment in new equipment which reduces the numbe r of high speed inter-office trunks required to interconnect the switches. The analysis requires optimizing the mix of two types of customer port card s to determine the maximum customer port capacity of a switch. Simple appro ximations are used to estimate the number of inter-office trunks and trunk cards required. Based in large part on the costs computed by this model, an executive level decision was made to move to the new architecture.