Frame Relay

Accessing the WAN – Chapter 3

Accessing WAN Ch3 © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 1
 Objectives
 Describe the fundamental concepts of Frame Relay technology
in terms of Enterprise WAN services including Frame Relay
operation, Frame Relay implementation requirements, Frame
Relay maps, and LMI operation.
 Configure a basic Frame Relay PVC including configuring and
troubleshooting Frame Relay on a router serial interface and
configuring a static Frame Relay map.
 Describe advanced concepts of Frame Relay technology in
terms of Enterprise WAN services including Frame Relay sub-
interfaces, Frame Relay bandwidth and flow control.
 Configure an advanced Frame Relay PVC including solving
reachability issues, configuring Frame Relay sub-interfaces,
verifying and troubleshooting Frame Relay configuration.

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Accessing WAN
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 3.1 Basic Frame Relay Concepts

Accessing the WAN – Chapter 3

Accessing WAN Ch3 © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 3
 Frame Relay: An Efficient and Flexible
WAN Technology
Frame Relay reduces network costs by using less equipment,
less complexity, and an easier implementation.

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Accessing WAN
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 Frame Relay: An Efficient and Flexible
WAN Technology

Efficient
 Customers only pay for the local loop, and for the bandwidth they
purchase from the network provider.
 Customers can define their virtual circuit needs in far greater
granularity, often in increments as small as 4 kb/s.
 FR shares bandwidth across a larger base of customers
Flexible
 A virtual circuit provides considerable flexibility in network design.
 The end of each connection has a number to identify it called a
Data Link Connection Identifier (DLCI)

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Accessing WAN
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 Frame Relay: Costs

 Initial costs for Frame Relay are higher than for ISDN
 Frame Relay customers pay only for the bandwidth they need
 There are no hourly charges
Accessing WAN
© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Ch2 6
 The Frame Relay WAN

Frame Relay provides access to a network, delimits and

delivers frames in proper order, and recognizes transmission
errors through a standard Cyclic Redundancy Check.
© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Accessing WAN
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 Frame Relay Operation

The physical component defines the mechanical, electrical, functional,

and procedural specifications for the connection between the devices.
The link layer component defines the protocol that establishes the
connection between the DTE device, such as a router, and the DCE device,
such as a FR switch.
Accessing WAN
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© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
8
 Virtual Circuits
The connection through a Frame Relay network between two
DTEs is called a virtual circuit (VC) -> The connection is
logical, without a direct electrical circuit.
Two ways to establish VCs:
•SVCs, switched virtual circuits, are established
dynamically by sending signaling messages to the network
(CALL SETUP, DATA TRANSFER, IDLE, CALL
TERMINATION).
•PVCs, permanent virtual circuits, are preconfigured by
the carrier, and after they are set up, only operate in DATA
TRANSFER and IDLE modes. Note that some publications
refer to PVCs as private VCs.

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Accessing WAN
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 Virtual Circuits

VCs are identified by DLCIs

(Data Link Connection
Indentifier):
DLCI: values typically
DLCIs: local significance
A DLCI identifies a VC to
the equipment at an endpoint
Two or many devices
connected by a VC may use a
different DLCI value to refer to
Accessing WAN
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© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
the same connection. 10
 The Frame Relay Encapsulation Process

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Accessing WAN
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 Frame Format

Extended 3 bit
Address congestion
control
EA=1: last
DLCI octet

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Frame Relay Topologies - Star Topology
(Hub and Spoke)

Each remote site has an access

link to the FR cloud with a single VC
A central site – Chicago - that acts
as a hub and hosts the primary
services.
Frame Relay made this expansion
relatively easy
Accessing WAN
© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Ch2 13
Frame Relay Topologies - Full Mesh Topology

•Highly reliable
•A full mesh topology connects
every site to every other site.

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Accessing WAN
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 Frame Relay address maping

 Before a Cisco router is able to transmit data over Frame Relay, it

needs to know which local DLCI maps to the Layer 3 address of
the remote destination
 Address Resolution Protocol (ARP): translates Layer 3 addresses
to Layer 2 addresses
 Dynamic Mapping – Inverse ARP: obtains Layer 3 addresses of
other stations from Layer 2 addresses, such as the DLCI in Frame
Relay networks

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Frame Relay address mapping

 Static Mapping

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Local Management Interface (LMI)

 LMI is a keepalive mechanism that provides status information

about Frame Relay connections between the router (DTE) and the
Frame Relay switch (DCE)
 The LMI is a definition of the messages used between the DTE
(customer) and the DCE (the Frame Relay switch owned by the
service provider)

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 LMI status messages

R1 sends an LMI status inquiry message to the network

The network replies with an LMI status message containing
details of every VC configured on the access link.
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© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
18
 LMI and Inverse ARP to Map Addresses

The router sends an Inverse ARP

message on each VC
The Inverse ARP reply allows the
router to make the necessary mapping
entries in its address-to-DLCI map table.
If several network layer protocols are
supported on the link, Inverse ARP
messages are sent for each one.
Accessing WAN
© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Ch2 19
 3.2 Configure a Basic FR

Accessing the WAN – Chapter 3

Accessing WAN Ch3 © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 20
 Configuring FR

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Configuring FR (contd.)

 Step 1. Setting the IP Address on the Interface

 Step 2. Configuring Encapsulation
encapsulation frame-relay [cisco | ietf]
 Step 3. Setting the Bandwidth
 Step 4. Setting the LMI Type (optional)
Cisco routers autosense three LMI types: Cisco (default), ANSI
Annex D, and Q933-A Annex A
 Verify: show interfaces serial

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Accessing WAN
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 Configuring FR (contd.)

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Configure a static Frame Relay map

Note: Frame Relay, ATM, and X.25

are non-broadcast multiple access
(NBMA) networks
The broadcast keyword allows
broadcasts and multicasts over the
Accessing WAN
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© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
PVC 24
 Configure a static Frame Relay map

 frame-relay map protocol protocol-address dlci [broadcast]

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 3.3 Advanced FR Concepts

Accessing the WAN – Chapter 3

Accessing WAN Ch3 © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 26
 Frame Relay NBMA topology

Only IP allows you to

disable split horizon
Split horizon could be
disabled for physical
interfaces with a single
PVC

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Frame Relay Subinterfaces

In a point-to-point environment: routing update traffic is not subject to

the split horizon rule
Multipoint enviroment: routing update traffic is subject to the split
horizon rule
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© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
28
 3.4 Configuring Advanced FR

Accessing the WAN – Chapter 3

Accessing WAN Ch3 © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 29
 Point-to-point subinterfaces

Note: Router may be necessary to save the configuration and reload

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Accessing WAN
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 Point-to-point subinterfaces

Use the frame-relay interface-dlci for local DLCI on the subinterface

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Accessing WAN
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 Verifying FR configuration.

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Troubleshooting FR.

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Summary
 Frame relay is the most widely used WAN technology
because it:
–Provides greater bandwidth than leased line
–Reduces cost because it uses less equipment
–Easy to implement

 Frame relay is associated with layer 2 of the OSI model

and encapsulates data packets in a frame relay frame
 Frame relay is configured on virtual circuits
–These virtual circuits may be identified by a DLCI

 Frame relay uses inverse ARP to map DLCI to IP

addresses

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Summary

 Configuring frame relay requires

–Enable frame relay encapsulation
–Configuring either static or dynamic mapping
–Considering split horizon problems that develop when multiple
VCs are placed on a single physical interface
 Factor affecting frame relay configuration
–How service provider has their charging scheme set up
 Frame relay flow control
–DE
–FECN
–BECN

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Summary

 The following commands can be used to help verify

frame relay configuration
–Show interfaces
–Show frame-relay lmi
–Show frame-relay pvc ###
–Show frame-relay map

 Use the following command to help troubleshoot a

frame relay configuration
–Debug frame-relay lmi

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Accessing WAN
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 © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Accessing WAN
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