Frame Relay came on the scene in the early 1990s as the evolutionary packet-based data delivery method of connecting multiple devices on a Wide Area Network (WAN). Frame Relay operates off the T1 and T3 lines already in place at a business, which makes it a popular tool.

Originally, Frame Relay was intended to work across Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) interfaces, but today, it is in wider spread use across WAN networks.

Variable length packets and statistical multiplexing make packet-switching technology work. Aside from the relatively low costs of Frame Relay, it has also proven to be a reliable technology tool.