Technology Introduction

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Frame Relay

Frame Relay
Frame Relay Terminologies
Frame relay Protocol
Frame relay protocol is a simplified X.25 WAN protocol. It is a kind of statistical
multiplexing protocol that can establish multiple virtual circuits (VC) over a single
physical cable, each of which is identified by a data link connection identifier (DLCI). A
DLCI is not of global significance. It is valid to two directly connected interfaces only.
That is, you can use the same DLCI on different physical interfaces to identify different
VCs.
A frame relay network can be a public network, a private enterprise network, or a
network formed by direct connections between data devices.

DTE, DCE, UNI, and NNI

Data Terminal Equipments (DTE) are end devices in frame relay networks. A frame
relay network provides the capability of data communications between end devices.
Data Circuit-terminating Equipments (DCE) are network devices that provide network
access to DTEs.
User Network Interfaces (UNI) are interfaces used to connect DTEs and DCEs.
Network-to-Network interfaces (NNI) are interfaces used to connect frame relay
networks.

Virtual Circuit
Virtual circuits fall into two types, permanent virtual circuit (PVC) and switched virtual
circuit (SVC), depending on how they are set up. Virtual circuits configured manually
are called PVCs, and those created by protocol negotiation are called SVCs, which are
automatically created and deleted by frame relay protocol. At present, the most
frequently used in frame relay is the PVC mode, that is., manually configured virtual
circuit.
In the PVC mode, the availability of the virtual circuit should be checked. Local
management interface (LMI) protocol can implement this function. It is used to maintain
PVC table of frame relay protocol, including advertising added PVC entry, detecting
deleted PVC entry, monitoring PVC status change, and verifying PVC link integrity. The
system supports three LMI protocols: ITU-T Q.933 Appendix A, ANSI T1.617 Appendix
D and nonstandard compatible protocol. Their basic operating mode is: DTE sends one
Status Enquiry message to query the virtual circuit status at a certain interval. After the

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Frame Relay

DCE receives the message, it will immediately use the Status message to inform DTE
of the status of all the virtual circuits on current interface.
The PVC status on DTE is completely determined by DCE, and the network determines
the PVC status on DCE. If two network devices are directly connected, the equipment
administrator sets the virtual circuit status of DCE.

Frame Relay Protocol Parameters

Table 1 lists the parameters of frame relay.
Table 1 Parameter description for frame relay protocol
Operating
mode

DTE

DCE

Value
range

Parameter description

Default
value

Request PVC status counter (N391)

1 to 255

Error threshold (N392)

1 to 10

Event counter (N393)

1 to 10

User side polling timer (T391), the

value 0 indicates that LMI protocol is
disabled

0 to 32767

10

(in seconds)

(in seconds)

Error threshold (N392)

1 to 10

Event counter (N393)

1 to 10

5 to 30

15

(in seconds)

(in seconds)

Network side polling timer (T392)

These parameters are stipulated by Q.933 Appendix A, and their meanings are
described as follows:
Meanings of parameters related to DTE operating mode:
z

N391: DTE sends a Status-Enquiry message at a certain interval (determined by

T391). There are two types of Status-Enquiry messages: link integrity verification
message and link status enquiry message. Parameter N391 defines the ratio of
sending the two types of messages, that is, number of link integrity verification
messages : number of link status enquiry messages = N391-1: 1

N392: it sets the threshold for errors among the observed events.

N393: it sets the total of observed events.

T391: it sets the interval for a DTE to send State-Enquiry messages.

A DTE sends a Status-Enquiry message at a certain interval to query the link status.
The DCE responds with a Status response message upon receiving the message. If
the DTE does not receive any response within a specified time, it will record this error. If
the number of errors exceeds the threshold, DTE will regard the physical channel and
all virtual circuits unavailable. N392 and N393 together define "error threshold". In other

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Frame Relay

words, if the number of errors reaches N392 among the N393 Status Enquiry
messages sent by DTE, DTE will consider that the number of errors has reached the
threshold and the physical channel and all virtual circuits are unavailable.
Meanings of parameters related to DCE operating mode:
z

N392 and N393: These two parameters have similar meanings to those related to
DTE operating mode. However, DCE requires that the fixed time interval for DTE
sending a status-enquiry message should be determined by T392, while DTE
requires that this interval should be determined by T391. If DCE does not receive
the status-enquiry message from DTE within a period determined by T392, an
error recorder is created.

T392: Time variable, which defines the maximum time that DCE waits for a
status-enquiry message. The time value shall be greater than the value of T391.

Frame Relay Address Mapping

Frame relay address mapping associates the protocol address of a remote device with
its frame relay address (local DLCI). By consulting the frame relay address map by
protocol address, the upper layer protocol can locate a remote device. Frame relay is
used to bear IP protocol. When sending an IP packet, the frame relay-enabled router
can obtain its next hop address after consulting the routing table, which is inadequate
for sending the packet to the correct destination across a frame relay network. To
identify the DLCI corresponding to the next hop address, the router must consult a
frame relay address map retaining the associations between remote IP addresses and
next hop DLCIs.
A frame relay address map can be manually configured or maintained by inverse
address resolution protocol (InARP).
The following figure presents how LANs are interconnected across a frame relay
network.
Router A

Router B

DLCI=70

DLCI=50

Router C
DLCI=60

FR

DLCI=80

Figure 1 Interconnect LANs through a frame relay network

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Frame Relay

Frame Relay Compression

Frame relay compression technique can be used to compress frame relay packets to
save network bandwidth, reduce network load and improve the data transfer efficiency
on frame relay network.
The device supports FRF.9 stac compression (referred to as FRF.9) and FRF.20 IP
header compression (IPHC), which is referred to as FRF.20.

I. FRF.9
FRF.9 classifies packets into two types: control packets and data packets. Control
packets are used for status negotiation between the two ends of DLCI where
compression protocol has been configured. FRF.9 data packets cannot be switched
before the negotiation succeeds. If the negotiation fails after 10 attempts to send FRF.9
control packet are made, the negotiating parties stop negotiation and the compression
configuration does not take effect.
FRF.9 compresses only data packets and InARP packets; it does not compress LMI
packets.

II. FRF.20
FRF.20 compresses the IP header of packets transmitted over frame relay. For
example, you may use it to compress voice packets to save bandwidth, decrease load,
and improve transmission efficiency on a frame relay network.
FRF.20 classifies packets into control packets and data packets. Control packets are
sent between FRF.20-enabled interfaces to negotiate status information. The
interfaces cannot exchange FRF.20 data packets before the negotiation succeeds. If
the negotiation fails after 10 attempts to send control packets are made, the interfaces
stop negotiation and their compression settings do not take effect.
FRF.20 compresses only RTP packets and TCP ACK packets.

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Multilink Frame Relay Configuration

Multilink Frame Relay Configuration

Overview
Multilink frame relay (MFR) is a cost effective bandwidth solution for frame relay users.
Based on the FRF.16 protocol of the frame relay forum, it implements MFR function on
DTE/DCE interfaces.
MFR function provides a kind of logic interface, namely MFR interface. The MFR
interface is composed of multiple frame relay physical links bound together, so as to
provide high-speed and broadband links on frame relay networks.
To maximize the bandwidth of bundled interface, it is recommended to bundle physical
interfaces of the same rate for the same MFR interface when configuring the MFR
interface so as to reduce management cost.

I. Bundle and bundle link

Bundle and bundle link are two basic concepts related to MFR.
One MFR interface corresponds to one bundle, which may contain multiple bundle links.
One bundle link corresponds to one physical interface. A bundle manages its bundle
links. The interrelationship between bundle and bundle link is illustrated as follows:
Bundle
Bundle Link
Bundle Link
Bundle Link

Figure 1 Illustration of bundle and bundle links

For the actual physical layer, bundle link is visible; while for the actual data link layer,
bundle is visible.

II. MFR interface and physical interface

An MFR interface is a kind of logic interface. Multiple physical interfaces can be
bundled into one MFR interface. One MFR interface corresponds to one bundle and
one physical interface corresponds to one bundle link. The configuration on a bundle
and bundle links is actually configuration on an MFR interface and physical interfaces.
The function and configuration of the MFR interface is the same with that on the FR
interface in common sense. Like the FR interface, the MFR interface supports DTE and
DCE interface types as well as QoS queue mechanism. After physical interfaces are
bundled into an MFR interface, their original network layer and frame relay link layer

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Multilink Frame Relay Configuration

parameters become ineffective and they use the parameter settings of the MFR
interface instead.

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PPPoFR

PPPoFR
PPP over frame relay (PPPoFR) enables routers to establish end-to-end PPP sessions
on a frame relay network, allowing frame relay stations to use PPP features such as
LCP, NCP, authentication, and MP fragmentation.

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PPPoFR

MPoFR
Multilink PPP over frame relay (MPoFR) is PPPoFR making use of MP fragments to
transmit MP fragments over frame relay stations.
In MPoFR configuration, first configure PPPoFR on two or more virtual templates (it is
not necessary to configure IP address on virtual templates), and then perform the
following configurations on these virtual templates to bind them to another virtual
template with PPP MP.

ATM

FR

Router A

Eth1/0

Telephone 1 .1.1.2/24

FR

S 2/0
1 .1.6.1/24

S2 /0
1.1.6 .2/24
Eth1/0
1.1.4.2 /24

Eth1/1
10 .1.1.2/24

Router B

Eth 1/1
10 .1 .4.2/24

Telephone

Host A

Host B

Host C

Host D

1.1 .1.1/24

10 .1.1.1/24

1 .1.4.1/24

10 .1.4.1/24

Net work diagram for MPoFR implementation