CCNA Guide to Cisco

Networking

Chapter 12 : Frame Relay

 Objectives
• Understand Frame Relay standards and
equipment
• Describe the role of virtual circuits and
performance parameters in Frame Relay
• Understand the Frame Relay topologies
• Understand the difference between
multipoint and point-to-point configurations
• Configure and monitor Frame Relay
 Frame Relay Standards And
Equipment
• Packet switching technology
• Encapsulation technology
• Physical and Data Link layers
• 56 kbps to 44.736 mbps
• Does not perform error correction like X.25
 Frame Relay Standards And
Equipment (continued)
• Connect to multiple sites using one physical
interface
• Equipment
– DCE
• Frame relay switch
• Public data network (PDN)
• Frame relay network device (FRND)
– DTE
• Custom premise equipment (CPE)
• CSU/DSU
• Customer owned router
• Frame relay access device (FRAD)
 Frame Relay Standards And
Equipment (continued)
• Equipment (continued)
– CSU/DSU
• Encoding
• Filtering
• Translating communications
Frame Relay Standards And
Equipment (continued)
Frame Relay Standards And
Equipment (continued)
Frame Relay Standards And
Equipment (continued)
 Virtual Circuits
• Frame relay operates with nearly any
serial interface
• Logical connections (software-maintained)
• Multiplexing
• Two types of virtual circuits
– Switched virtual circuits
– Permanent virtual circuits
 DLCI
• Data link connection identifier (DLCI)
identify virtual circuits
• Map virtual circuits to layer 3 protocol
addresses
• Only have local significance
• Are not unique identifiers on the global
network (basic configuration only)
 Frame Relay Map
• DLCI numbers are mapped or assigned to
a specific interface
• Frame relay map table is active in RAM
• Can be built automatically or statically
• Service provider FRND will have a frame
relay switching table
Frame Relay Map (continued)
 Subinterfaces
• Single physical interface may service
multiple PVCs
• Referenced as
– Serial 0/0.3, serial 0/0.4
• Router(config)# interface serial 0/0.5
 LMI
• Local Management Interface (LMI)
– Makes the DLCIs globally significant rather than
locally significant
– Creates a signaling mechanism between the router
and the Frame Relay switch, which could report on
the status of the link
– Supports multicasting
• Makes auto configuration of the frame relay map
possible
• Keepalive packets
– Sent every 10 seconds by default
– Verify the frame relay link
 LMI (continued)
• LMI provides the following states of the virtual
circuits
– Active: The connection is working and routers can use
it to exchange data
– Inactive: The connection from the local router to the
switch is working, but the connection to the remote
router is not available
– Deleted: No LMI information is being received from
the Frame Relay switch
• Without LMI the frame relay map must be built
statically
 Inverse ARP
• Send a query using the DLCI number to
find the remote IP address
• Inverse ARP responses build the frame
relay map automatically
• Inverse ARP exchanges every 60 seconds
• On by default
• LMI is required for inverse ARP to function
 Encapsulation Types
• Three types of LMI encapsulations
– cisco
– ansi
– q933a
• “Autosense” the LMI type
• Three information elements of LMI
– Report type
– Keepalive
– PVC status
 Encapsulation Types
(continued)
• DLCI status messages
– New: Used if a new DLCI connection has
been configured
– Active: Used to indicate whether the virtual
circuit is available for data transfer
– Receiver not ready: Used for flow control
– Minimum bandwidth: Indicates the minimum
available bandwidth
 Encapsulation Types
(continued)
• DLCI status messages (continued)
– Global addressing: Used to give DLCI global
significance
– Multicasting: Make DLCI numbers globally
significant by advertising them across the
Frame Relay network
– Provider-Initiated Status Update: Allows the
provider to initiate a status inquiry
 Split Horizon
• Reduces the chances of routing loops
• Routing updates arrived on an interface
can not be sent back out the same
interface
• Nonbroadcast multiaccess (NBMA)
network
• A problem for multipoint configuration
– Single subnet configuration for all VCs
– Broadcast multiaccess topology
 Split Horizon (continued)
• Solution to the split horizon problem
• Point-to-point subinterfaces
Split Horizon (continued)
Split Horizon (continued)
Split Horizon (continued)
 Performance Parameters
• Telecommunications provider contract specs
• Access rate: Physical speed of the interface
• Committed information rate (CIR): The minimum
transfer rate
• Committed burst size (Bc): Maximum amount of
data bits to transfer in a set period under normal
conditions
• Excess Burst Size (Be): Amount of excess traffic
over Bc which is discard eligible
 Congestion
• Frame relay congestion management
– Forward explicit congestion notification
(FECN)
• Message to destination router
– Backward explicit congestion notification
(BECN)
• Message to source router
• Discard eligible (DE)
Frame Format
 Frame Format (continued)
• Flag: An eight-bit binary sequence (01111110)
that indicates the start of the data frame
• Address: Two to four bytes that contain several
pieces of Frame Relay information
• Ethertype: Identifies the type of higher-layer
protocol being encapsulated (IP, IPX, or
AppleTalk)
• Data: A variable-length field that contains the
information from the higher layers encapsulated
in the Frame Relay frame
 Frame Format (continued)
• FCS: Frame check sequence (FCS) or cyclical
redundancy check (CRC) used to ensure that
the frame was not corrupted during transmission
• Flag: An eight-bit binary sequence (01111110)
that indicates the end of the data frame
• Frame Relay Address Field descriptions
– CR: A command or response bit that is used for
sending connection management and frame
acknowledgment information between stations
– FECN: Setting used to alert receiving devices if the
frame experiences congestion
 Frame Format (continued)
• Frame Relay Address Field descriptions
(continued)
– BECN: Setting used on frames traveling away from
the congested area to warn source devices that
congestion has occurred on that path
– DE: Discard eligible bit that is used to identify frames
that are first to be dropped when the CIR is exceeded
– EA: Extension address bits that are used to extend
the Address field from two bytes to either three or four
bytes
Frame Relay Topologies
Frame Relay Configuration
Frame Relay Configuration
(continued)
Frame Relay Configuration
(continued)
Frame Relay Configuration
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Frame Relay Configuration
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Frame Relay Configuration
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 Frame Relay Configuration
(continued)
• Frame relay static mapping
– Define DLCI numbers manually
– Reasons to statically configure DLCI numbers
• Remote router doesn’t support Inverse ARP
• Assign specific subinterfaces to specific DLCI
connections
• Reduce broadcast traffic
• Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) over Frame
Relay
 Frame Relay Configuration
(continued)
• Non-Cisco Routers
– Do not support the Cisco frame relay encapsulation
– IETF setting
– RouterA(config-if)# encapsulation frame-relay ietf
• Keepalive configuration
– Default setting of every 10 seconds
– Maintain connection
– Connection status
– Setting can be 0 to 30 seconds
– RouterA(config-if)# keepalive 15
Monitoring Frame Relay
Monitoring Frame Relay
(continued)
Monitoring Frame Relay
(continued)
Monitoring Frame Relay
(continued)
 Summary
• Frame Relay is a flexible WAN technology that can be
used to connect two geographically separate LANs
• Frame Relay is both a service and type of encapsulation
• The service parameters must be discussed with the
Frame Relay provider (telecommunications company)
• Service parameters for Frame Relay include the access
rate, Committed Information Rate (CIR), Committed
Burst Size (Bc), and Excess Burst Size (Be)
• Frame Relay connections employ virtual circuits that can
be either permanent or switched
 Summary (continued)
• Virtual circuit connections across Frame Relay
connections are defined by Data Link Connection
Identifier (DLCI) numbers
• The DLCI numbers can be associated with remote
Network layer addresses; however, they are only locally
significant unless the Local Management Interface (LMI)
is available
• Most Frame Relay providers support LMI, which allows
Frame Relay maps to be dynamically created via Inverse
ARP
• Static mappings of DLCI numbers to remote IP
addresses can be configured when routers do not
support Inverse ARP
• Inverse ARP is on by default for multipoint configurations
 Summary (continued)
• Inverse ARP is not enabled on point-to-
point links because only one path is
available
• Frame Relay circuits can be established
over serial interfaces or subinterfaces on
Cisco routers