Frame Relay Standards Siemens

Frame Relay Standards

Contents
1 History 3
2 Frame Relay Standards 7
3 Frame Relay Forum 11
4 Exercise 15
5 Solution 19

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1 History

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The broad consensus in the industrial sector regarding the need for Frame Relay as
a further switching technology gave impetus to the rapid development of industrial
standards. Two major standardization committees are currently active in the area of
Frame Relay:

the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)

the International Telecommunications Union - Telecommunications
Standardization Sector (ITU-T).

In order to understand how the Frame Relay standards evolved, we need to cast our
mind back to 1988. That year ITU-T ratified the recommendation I.122, "Framework
for additional packet mode bearer services".
I.122 was part of a series of ISDN-related specifications. ISDN developers used a
protocol known as LINK Access Protocol - D Channel (LAPD) for transport of
signaling information in the ISDN D-channel.
It became evident that LAPD has properties that could be of great use in other
applications too. One of these properties is its ability to multiplex virtual circuits at
level 2 – the so-called frame level – instead of at level 3 (the packet level, as is the
case with X.25). For this reason, I.122 was construed as a general outline to illustrate
how a protocol like LAPD can also be used in applications other than ISDN signaling.
From that point on, fast progress was achieved in the standardization process, and
by the end of 1991 the chief Frame Relay standards were ratified.
On the manufacturer side, it was StrataCom Inc. – now part of the Cisco Systems
Inc. – who launched the first functional Frame Relay product on the market. The first
service provider to offer Frame Relay as a public telecommunications service was
Williams telecommunications (WilTel), now part of WorldCom Inc.

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Frame Relay Standards

Fig. 1

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2 Frame Relay Standards

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The table below shows the major ITU-T recommendations concerning Frame Relay:

Rec. I.122 Framework for Frame Mode Bearer Services

Rec. I.233 Frame Mode Bearer Services
Rec. I.233.1 ISDN Frame Relaying Bearer Service
Rec. I.233.2 ISDN Frame Switching Bearer Service
Rec. I.370 Congestion Management for the ISDN Frame Relaying Bearer
Service
Rec. I.372 Frame Relaying Bearer Service Network-to-Network Interface
Requirements
Rec. Q.922 ISDN Data Link Layer Specification for Frame Mode Bearer Services
Rec. Q.933 Layer 3 Signaling Specification for Frame Mode Bearer Services
Rec. X.36 Interface between data terminal equipment (DTE) and data circuit-
terminating equipment (DCE) for public data networks providing
frame relay data transmission service by dedicated circuit
Rec. X.36 – Interface between Data Terminal Equipment (DTE) and Data Circuit-
Amendment 1 terminating Equipment (DCE) for public data networks providing
frame relay data transmission service by dedicated circuit.
Amendment 1: Switched Virtual Circuit (SVC) signaling and
refinements of Permanent Virtual Circuit (PVC) signaling
Rec. X.76 Network-to-network interface between public data networks
providing the frame relay data transmission service
Rec. X.76 – Network-to-network interface between public data networks
Amendment 1 providing the frame relay data transmission service.
Amendment 1: Switched Virtual Circuits

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In addition, there are ANSI recommendations and the Implementation Agreements of

the Frame Relay Forum applicable to Frame Relay (refer to the following chapter).
Two further organizations whose interests coincide with those of the Frame Relay
Forum are the ATM Forum and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The
subject of the relevant recommendations of these organizations is the interworking
between ATM and Frame Relay (ATM Forum) and between the Internet and Frame
Relay (IETF).
The table below states some of the major recommendations made by these
organizations.

Organization Document Description

ATM Forum af-uni-0010 UNI Specification (Version 3.0)
ATM Forum af-bici-0013 B-ICI Specification Document (Version 2.0)
IETF RFC 1315 Management Information Base for Frame Relay DTEs
IETF RFC 1483 Multiprotocol Encapsulation over ATM Adaptation
Layer 5
IETF RFC 1490 Multiprotocol Interconnect over Frame Relay
IETF RFC 1604 Definition of Managed Objects for Frame Relay
Service

TIP
Documents published by the Frame Relay Forum, ATM Forum and IETF are
generally available on the Internet.
Some important Internet addresses:

ITU-T ..... www.itu.int

ANSI ..... web.ansi.org

IETF ..... www.ietf.org

ATM-Forum ..... www.atmforum.com

Frame Relay Forum ..... www.frforum.com

Other Internet sites with information on Frame Relay:

Motorolas Frame Relay Resources page .....www.mot.com/networking/frame-
relay/resources.html

Frame Relay Resource Center .....www.alliancedatacom.com/

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3 Frame Relay Forum

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The Frame Relay Forum founded in 1991 is a non-profit-making organization made

up of vendors, network operators, users and consultants. The objective of the forum
is to promote acceptance and implementation of Frame Relay in compliance with
national and international standards.
The forum was established by the so-called “gang of four” representing a cross
section of the computer and telecommunications industry:

Strata-Com as representatives for private networks

Northern Telekom (now Nortel) as representatives for public networks and wide
area networks

Cisco as representatives for LAN interworking

DEC as representatives for computers.

The forum devises and ratifies so-called Implementation Agreements (IAs) for
governing the interworking of equipment from different vendors in a network and for
the interoperability of Frame Relay networks from different network operators.
The forum has published 16 Implementation Agreements thus far. They are listed in
the next table. Work is continuing on the Implementation Agreements with the goal of
extending the application possibilities of Frame Relay.

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Number Date (d-m-y) Description

FRF.1.1 19.01.1996 User-to-Network (UNI) Implementation Agreement
FRF.2.1 10.07.1995 Frame Relay Network-to-Network (NNI) Implementation
Agreement
FRF.3.1 22.06.1995 Multiprotocol Encapsulation Implementation Agreement
(MEI)
FRF.4 n/a Switched Virtual Circuit Implementation Agreement (SVC)
FRF.5 20.12.1994 Frame Relay / ATM Network Interworking Implementation
Agreement
FRF.6 March 1994 Frame Relay Service Customer Network Management
Implementation Agreement (MIB)
FRF.7 21.10.1994 Frame Relay PVC Multicast Service and Protocol
Description
FRF.8 14.04.1995 Frame Relay / ATM PVC Service Interworking
Implementation Agreement
FRF.9 22.01.1996 Data Compression over Frame Relay Implementation
Agreement
FRF.10 10.09.1996 Frame Relay Network-to-Network SVC Implementation
Agreement
FRF.11 05.05.1997 Voice over Frame Relay Implementation Agreement
FRF.12 15.12.1997 Frame Relay Fragmentation Implementation Agreement
FRF.13 04.08.1998 Service Level Definitions Implementation Agreement
FRF.14 14.12.1998 Physical Layer Interface Implementation Agreement
FRF.15 August 1999 End-to-End Multilink Frame Relay Implementation
Agreement
FRF.16 August 1999 Multilink Frame Relay UNI/NNI Implementation Agreement

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4 Exercise

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Exercise 1
Title: Frame Relay Standards
Objectives: The participant can state the major Frame Relay standards
Prerequisites: None
Task

Fill in the tables below.

Query

ITU T Rec. Description

Rec. I.370
Rec. Q.922
Rec. Q.933
Rec. X.36
Rec. X.36 –
Amendment 1
Rec. X.76
Rec. X.76 –
Amendment 1

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Number Description
FRF.1.1
FRF.2.1
FRF.3.1
FRF.4
FRF.5
FRF.6
FRF.7
FRF.8
FRF.9
FRF.10
FRF.11
FRF.12
FRF.13
FRF.14
FRF.15
FRF.16

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5 Solution

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Solution 1
Title: Frame Relay Standards
Objectives: The participant can state the major Frame Relay standards
Prerequisites: None
Task

Fill in the tables below.

Solution

ITU T Rec. Description

Rec. I.370 Congestion Management for the ISDN Frame Relaying Bearer
Service
Rec. Q.922 ISDN Data Link Layer Specification for Frame Mode Bearer Services
Rec. Q.933 Layer 3 Signaling Specification for Frame Mode Bearer Services
Rec. X.36 Interface between data terminal equipment (DTE) and data circuit-
terminating equipment (DCE) for public data networks providing
frame relay data transmission service by dedicated circuit
Rec. X.36 – Interface between Data Terminal Equipment (DTE) and Data Circuit-
Amendment 1 terminating Equipment (DCE) for public data networks providing
frame relay data transmission service by dedicated circuit.
Amendment 1: Switched Virtual Circuit (SVC) signaling and
refinements of Permanent Virtual Circuit (PVC) signaling
Rec. X.76 Network-to-network interface between public data networks
providing the frame relay data transmission service
Rec. X.76 – Network-to-network interface between public data networks
Amendment 1 providing the frame relay data transmission service.
Amendment 1: Switched Virtual Circuits

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Number Description
FRF.1.1 User-to-Network (UNI) Implementation Agreement
FRF.2.1 Frame Relay Network-to-Network (NNI) Implementation Agreement
FRF.3.1 Multiprotocol Encapsulation Implementation Agreement (MEI)
FRF.4 Switched Virtual Circuit Implementation Agreement (SVC)
FRF.5 Frame Relay / ATM Network Interworking Implementation Agreement
FRF.6 Frame Relay Service Customer Network Management Implementation
Agreement (MIB)
FRF.7 Frame Relay PVC Multicast Service and Protocol Description
FRF.8 Frame Relay / ATM PVC Service Interworking Implementation Agreement
FRF.9 Data Compression over Frame Relay Implementation Agreement
FRF.10 Frame Relay Network-to-Network SVC Implementation Agreement
FRF.11 Voice over Frame Relay Implementation Agreement
FRF.12 Frame Relay Fragmentation Implementation Agreement
FRF.13 Service Level Definitions Implementation Agreement
FRF.14 Physical Layer Interface Implementation Agreement
FRF.15 August 1999 End-to-End Multilink Frame Relay Implementation
Agreement
FRF.16 August 1999 Multilink Frame Relay UNI/NNI Implementation Agreement

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