A frame is a digital
data transmission
Data transmission and data reception or, more broadly, data communication or digital communications is the transfer and reception of data in the form of a digital bitstream or a digitized analog signal transmitted over a point-to-point o ...
unit in
computer networking
A computer network is a set of computers sharing resources located on or provided by network nodes. The computers use common communication protocols over digital interconnections to communicate with each other. These interconnections ar ...
and
telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than tha ...
. In
packet switched
In telecommunications, packet switching is a method of grouping Data (computing), data into ''network packet, packets'' that are transmitted over a digital Telecommunications network, network. Packets are made of a header (computing), header and ...
systems, a frame is a simple container for a single
network packet
In telecommunications and computer networking, a network packet is a formatted unit of data carried by a packet-switched network. A packet consists of control information and user data; the latter is also known as the '' payload''. Control infor ...
. In other telecommunications systems, a frame is a repeating structure supporting
time-division multiplexing.
A frame typically includes
frame synchronization features consisting of a sequence of bits or symbols that indicate to the receiver the beginning and end of the
payload data within the stream of symbols or bits it receives. If a receiver is connected to the system during frame transmission, it ignores the data until it detects a new frame synchronization sequence.
Packet switching
In the
OSI model of computer networking, a frame is the
protocol data unit at the
data link layer
The data link layer, or layer 2, is the second layer of the seven-layer OSI model of computer networking. This layer is the protocol layer that transfers data between nodes on a network segment across the physical layer. The data link layer ...