Hi,
Cost is really a big part of this but since you are saying that this is not an issue, I'll stay away from it.
Here's why you would use private lines over FR:
- you are absolutely guaranteed the rate that you purchased. Private lines use circuit-switching technology whereas FR uses packet-switching technology. Within the FR networks, frames will be competing with each other for access to bandwidth. With private lines, there is absolutely no such contention.
- you get a bit more security with private lines than with FR links although both are susceptible to mis-configuration within the provider core.
Having said that, private lines are a lot less flexible than having FR links. If you add a new site, you need to add another circuit whereas with FR, you would simply order another PVC. With FR, it is easy to move from a hub-and-spoke network to a partially or fully meshed network but it's much harder to do so with private lines...
I've used MLFR and it works quite well. It is essentially similar to MLPPP but you do get the option of multiple channels via the use of DLCIs which you don't get with MLPPP. I'd say MLPPP is slighlty easier to setup and is the technology that is more widely deployed...
Even if I could afford it, I would personally go for FR links, using any extra money I had to buy faster FR links than private lines.
Hope that helps - pls rate the post if it does.
Paresh
