CCNA – Semester4

Module 5
Frame Relay

Objectives

• Components of a Frame Relay network

• The technology of Frame Relay and topology of a
Frame Relay network
• Configuring Frame Relay
• Issues of a non-broadcast multi-access network
 Frame Relay Concepts

Introducing Frame Relay

• An ITU-T and ANSI standard.

• A packet-switched, connection-oriented, WAN
service.
• It operates at the data link layer of the OSI
reference model.
• Uses a subset of HDLC protocol LAPF.
Frame Relay operation

• Frames carry data between user devices called DTE, and

the DCE at the edge of the WAN.

FRAD

• Computing equipment that is not on a LAN may

also send data across a Frame Relay network.
• The computing equipment will use a Frame
Relay access device (FRAD) as the DTE.
Frame Relay Toll network

• May be privately owned, but it is more commonly provided as

a service by a public carrier.
• Typically consists of many geographically scattered Frame
Relay switches interconnected by trunk lines.

Frame Relay terminology

• Connection through the Frame Relay network

between two DTEs is called a virtual circuit (VC).
• VCs established dynamically by sending
signaling messages to the network are SVCs.
• PVCs are preconfigured by the carrier
Terminologies: Access Rate

• The clock speed of the connection (local loop) to

the Frame Relay cloud.
• It is the rate at which data travels into or out of the
network.

Terminologies: DLCI

• Data-link connection identifier.

• A number that identifies the end point in a Frame
Relay network.
• Significant only to the local network.
• The Frame Relay switch maps the DLCIs between a
pair of routers to create a permanent virtual circuit.
Terminologies: LMI

• Local management interface.

• A signaling standard between the CPE device and
the Frame Relay switch.
• Responsible for managing the connection and
maintaining status between the devices.

Terminologies: CIR

• Committed information rate (in bps).The average

rate at which you want to transmit in periods of
noncongestion.
• The CIR is the guaranteed rate, that the service
provider commits to providing.
• While a frame is being transmitted, each bit will be
sent at the port speed.
Terminologies: Tc

• Committed Rate Measurement Interval. The time

interval over which the rates are calculated is called
the committed time.
• The time interval shouldn’t exceed 125 ms, almost
always 125 ms.

Terminologies: Bc

• The number of committed bits in Tc is the

committed burst.
• Bc=CIR x Tc
Terminologies: Excess burst

• The maximum number of uncommitted bits that the

switch attempts to transfer beyond the CIR.
• Dependent on the service offerings available by the
vendor, but is typically limited to the port speed of
the local access loop.

Terminologies

MinCIR
Frame Relay flow control

• The switch maintains a bit counter for each VC.

• An incoming frame is marked DE if it puts the
counter over Bc.
• An incoming frame is discarded if it pushes the
counter over Bc + Be.
• At the end of each Tc seconds the counter is
reduced by Bc.

Terminologies: FECN

• Forward explicit congestion notification.

• When a switch recognizes congestion in the
network, it sends a FECN packet to the destination
device.
Terminologies: BECN

• Backward explicit congestion notification.

• When a 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.

Frame Relay congestion

Terminologies: DE

• Discard eligibility indicator.

• A set bit that indicates the frame may be discarded
in preference to other frames if congestion occurs.
• The DE bit is set on the oversubscribed traffic.

Frame Relay bandwidth

• The serial connection or access link to the

Frame Relay network is normally a leased line.
• The speed of the line is the access speed or port
speed.
• Port speeds are typically between 64 kbps and 4
Mbps. Some providers offer speeds up to 45
Mbps.
Frame Relay frame format

• DLCI: Indicates the DLCI value. Consists of the

first 10 bits of the Address field.
• Congestion Control: The last 3 bits in the
address field. These are the FECN, BECN, and
discard eligible (DE) bits.

Frame Relay addressing

• DLCI address space is limited to 10 bits. Æ possible 1024

DLCI addresses.
• The usable portion of these addresses are determined by
the LMI type:
– The Cisco LMI type supports a range of DLCI addresses from DLCI
16-1007.
– The ANSI/ITU LMI type supports the range of addresses from DLCI
16-992.
• The remaining DLCI addresses are reserved for vendor
implementation.
Frame Relay Topology

Frame Relay LMI functions

• The heartbeat mechanism, which verifies that a

VC is operational
• The multicast mechanism
• The flow control
• The ability to give DLCIs global significance
• The VC status mechanism
LMI types

• The LMI type configured on the router must

match the type used by the service provider.
• Three types of LMIs are supported by Cisco
routers:
– Cisco – The original LMI extensions
– Ansi – Corresponding to the ANSI standard T1.617
Annex D
– q933a – Corresponding to the ITU standard Q933 Annex
A

LMI frame format

• LMI messages are sent in frames distinguished by an

LMI-specific DLCI.
• Cisco specification as DLCI 1023.
• The LMI frame contains 4 mandatory bytes:
– The 1st bytes has the same format as the LAPB unnumbered
information (UI) frame indicator, with the poll/final bit set to zero.
– The 2nd byte is referred to as the protocol discriminator, which is set
to a value that indicates LMI.
– The 3rd byte (call reference) is always filled with zeros.
– The final byte is the message type field:
• Status messages
• Status enquiry messages
Frame Relay mapping
• Network address ÅÆ DLCI
• The routing table is then used to supply the next-hop protocol
address or the DLCI for outgoing traffic.
• The resolution is done through a data structure called a Frame Relay
map.
• This data structure can be statically configured in the router, or the
Inverse ARP feature can be used for automatic setup of the map.

LMI operation

• LMI status messages combined with Inverse ARP

messages allow a router to associate network layer and
data link layer addresses.
• When a router that is connected to a Frame Relay
network is started, it 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.
• Subsequent responses include only status changes.
Frame Relay mapping

Frame Relay switching table

• The Frame Relay switching table consists of four entries:

incoming port and DLCI, and outgoing port and DLCI.
• The DLCI may be remapped as it passes through each
switch.
 Configuring Frame Relay

Frame Relay encapsulation

• Frame Relay is configured on a serial interface

and the default encapsulation type is the Cisco
proprietary version of HDLC.
• To change the encapsulation to Frame Relay
use the
encapsulation frame-relay [cisco | ietf]
LMI type

• The LMI connection is established and

configured by the command:
frame-relay lmi-type [ansi | cisco | q933a]
• IOS Release 11.2 or later, the LMI-type is
autosensed and no configuration is needed.
• The default LMI type is cisco.
• The LMI type is set on a per-interface basis and is
shown in the output of the show interfaces
command.

Configuring basic Frame Relay

Configuring a static Frame Relay map
• The local DLCI must be statically mapped to the network
layer address when:
– Remote router does not support Inverse ARP.
– Broadcast traffic and multicast traffic over the PVC must be
controlled.
– Paritial-mesh Frame Relay topology.

router(conf-if)#frame-relay map protocol protocol-address

dlci [broadcast]

• Static frame-relay map disables InverseARP, to turn it

back on use the command:

router(conf-if)#frame-relay inverse-arp [protocol] [dlci]

Configuring a static Frame Relay map

Split Horizon

• When a single interface is used to interconnect multiple sites,

there may be reachability issues as nonbroadcast multiaccess
(NBMA) nature of Frame Relay .
• Split horizon does not allow routing updates to be sent out the
same interface that was the source of the route information.

Frame Relay subinterfaces

• Use subinterfaces in Frame Relay:

– To enable the forwarding of broadcast in a hub-and-spoke Frame
Relay topology.
– To subject problem regarding split-horizon
– To reduce overall cost of many physical interfaces
• Frame Relay subinterfaces can be configured in either
point-to-point or multipoint mode:
– Point-to-point
– Multipoint
Frame Relay subinterfaces

• The encapsulation frame-relay command is assigned to

the physical interface. All other configuration items,
such as the network layer address and DLCIs, are
assigned to the subinterface.

Configuring Frame Relay subinterfaces

• Configure encapsulation and no shut the physical

interface without ip address.
router(config-if)#interface serial number.subinterface-number
{multipoint | point-to-point}
• Using major interface as point-to-point, DLCI
configuration is not required as it can be learned via LMI
from Frame Relay switch.
• With subinterfaces, use this command configure the
local DLCI:
router(config-subif)#frame-relay interface-dlci dlci-number
[cisco|ietf]
Subinterface configuration sample

Configure Cisco router as Frame Relay switch

• Cisco router can be configured as Frame Relay switch

using command:
Router(config)#frame-relay switching
• Then all connections should be DCE type and be
specified with the command:
Router(conf-if)#frame-relay intf-type dce|dte
• Configure LMI type on Frame Relay switch:
Router(conf-if)#frame-relay lmi-type {ansi | cisco | q933a}
• Configure Frame Relay routes to create switching table:
Router(conf-if)#frame-relay route in_dlci interface out_interface out_dlci
Frame Relay routes

Verifying the Frame Relay configuration

• show interfaces command displays LMI type, LMI DLCI,
Frame Relay DTE/DCE type
• show frame-relay lmi command to display LMI traffic
statistics.
• show frame-relay pvc [interface interface] [dlci] command
to display the status of each configured PVC as well as
traffic statistics.
• show frame-relay map command to display the current
map entries and information about the connections.
• show frame-relay route command on frame relay switch to
display switching table.
Show interface

Show frame-relay lmi

Show frame-relay pvc

Show frame-relay map

Troubleshooting the Frame Relay configuration

• debug frame-relay lmi command to determine

whether the router and the Frame Relay switch
are sending and receiving LMI packets properly.
• debug frame-relay events command to display
frame-relay packets.

Debug frame-relay lmi

Summary
• The components of a Frame Relay network
• The technology of Frame Relay
• Point-to-point and point-to-multipoint topologies
• The topology of a Frame Relay network and potential
problems
• How to configure a Frame Relay Permanent Virtual Circuit
(PVC)
• How to create a Frame Relay Map on a remote network
• Why subinterfaces are needed and how they are configured
• How to verify and troubleshoot a Frame Relay connection

Lab1 Topology

1. PVC(21-42) and PVC(32-41) belong to 1 subnet (partial-mesh)

2. All interfaces are multipoint subinterface (full-mesh)
3. IP address is 192.168.1.0/24 . Each Loopback interface requires 30
IPs. Rouing protocol is EIGRP with AS 100
Lab2 Topology

Lab2 Requirements

• PVC(111-121), PVC(123-143), PVC(142-112) form

1 subnet
• PVC(122-131) form 1 subnet
• PVC(132-141) form 1 subnet
• Routing protocol is EIGRP, AS 200
• Network address is 172.30.0.0/16, each loopback
interface requires 31 IPs.
CCNA4 – Module5