Frame Relay

Naveen Patel

Frame Relay is a high-performance WAN protocol Frame Relay is a connection-oriented data-link technology Frame Relay defines the interconnection process between the router and the local access switching equipment of the service provider Frame Relay networks are called nonbroadcast multiaccess (NBMA) networks

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Frame Relay Terminology

Virtual circuit (VC) Local access rate Data-link connection identifier (DLCI) Committed information rate (CIR) Local Management Interface (LMI) Inverse Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) Forward explicit congestion notification (FECN) Backward explicit congestion notification (BECN)

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Local access rate: Clock speed (port speed) of the connection (local loop) to the Frame Relay cloud. Virtual Circuit ( VC ) : A VC is a logical concept that represents the path that frames travel between DTEs

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Virtual Circuit ( VC ) are of two type :

Permanent virtual circuit (PVC): Provides permanently established connections that are used for frequent and consistent data transfers between DTE devices across the Frame Relay network. Communication across a PVC does not require the call setup and call teardown

Switched virtual circuit (SVC): Provides temporary connections that are used in situations that require only periodic data transfer between DTE devices across the Frame Relay network. SVCs are dynamically established on demand and are torn down when transmission is complete.

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Data-link connection identifier (DLCI): Contains a 10-bit number in the address field of the Frame Relay frame header that identifies the VC. Relay DLCIs are locally significant; this means that the addresses need to be unique only on the local access link

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Local Management Interface (LMI): A signaling standard between the router (DTE device) and the local Frame Relay switch (DCE device) that is responsible for managing the connection and maintaining status between the router and the Frame Relay switch. LMI is used for management purposes and allows two directly connected devices to share information about the status of VCs, as well as their configuration. They perform a keepalive function between the DTE and DCE

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Cisco routers support the following three LMI types: Cisco: LMI type defined jointly by Cisco, StrataCom, Northern Telecom (Nortel), and Digital quipment Corporation ANSI: ANSI T1.617 Annex D Q.933A: ITU-T Q.933 Annex A

LMI provide following information. Active Inactive Deleted

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Committed information rate (CIR): Specifies the maximum average data rate that the network undertakes to deliver under normal conditions or it is the average contracted rate of a VC measured over a period of time. Excess burst (Be) This is the maximum number of uncommitted bits that the Frame Relay switch attempts to transfer beyond the CIR. Committed burst (Bc) The maximum number of bits that the switch agrees to transfer during any Tc. ( Committed Time Interval )

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Forward explicit congestion notification (FECN) When a Frame Relay switch recognizes congestion in the network, it sends an FECN packet to the destination device indicating that congestion has occurred. Backward explicit congestion notification (BECN) When a Frame Relay switch recognizes congestion in the network, it sends a BECN packet to the source router instructing the router to reduce the rate at which it is sending packets. Discard Eligibility (DE) When the router detects network congestion, the FR switch will drop packets with the DE bit set first.

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Inverse ARP
The Inverse ARP mechanism allows the router to automatically build the Frame Relay map. The router learns the DLCIs that are in use from the switch during the initial LMI exchange. The router then sends an Inverse ARP request to each DLCI for each protocol configured on the interface if the protocol is supported. The return information from the Inverse ARP is then used to build the Frame Relay map.

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Frame Relay Topologies

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Point to Point Subinterfaces

A single subinterface is used to establish one PVC connection to another physical or subinterface on a remote router. In this case, the interfaces would be: in the same subnet and each interface would have a single DLCI Each point-to-point connection is its own subnet. In this environment, broadcasts are not a problem because the routers are point-to-point and act like a leased line.

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Multipoint Subinterfaces
Multipoint subinterfaces are still subject to the split-horizon limitations. All nodes attached to a multipoint subinterface belong to the same network number. A multipoint subinterface is used to keep remote sites on a single network number while slowly migrating remote sites to their own point-to-point subinterface network.

Naveen Patel

Summary
Frame Relay allows you to interconnect your remote sites in a variety of topologies including star, full mesh, and partial mesh. A Frame Relay NBMA topology may cause routing update reachability issues, which are solved by using subinterfaces. A Frame Relay connection requires that, on a VC, the local DLCI be mapped to a destination network layer address such as an IP address. LMI is a signaling standard between the router and the Frame Relay switch that is responsible for managing the connection and maintaining status between the devices. Service providers map Frame Relay DLCIs so that DLCIs with local significance appear at each end of a Frame Relay connection.

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The End

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