Hidaya Institute of Science & Technology

Hidaya Institute of
Science & Technology
www.histpk.org
A Division of Hidaya Trust, Pakistan
1
© Copyright 2012 Hidaya Trust (Pakistan) ● A Non-Profit Organization ● www.hidayatrust.org / www,histpk.org
Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Frame-Relay
By
M.L. Sario

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
There’re Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi and Hyderabad. Since we
want connectivity between the sites we have an ISP who sold us
three leased lines:

Between Islamabad and Lahore.

Between Islamabad and Karachi.
3

Between Islamabad and Hyderabad.
Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Leased Lines
• Using leased lines is good! If you lease a line, you are
the only person using that line, since you are paying
for that.
• High quality
• Low chance of congestion (if you have fast links).
• secure since it’s only your traffic that’s flowing
through these lines.

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
There are also a few downsides to using leased
lines however:
• You are the only one using these lines so you pay for
them, being exclusive is fun but expensive.
• On router Islamabad you’ll need three interfaces for
each leased line, more interfaces means more money.
• What happens if you are going to move the
Islamabad site? It’s not always possible to move the
leased lines with you.

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Introduction to Frame-Relay
• Frame Relay is a popular high performance
WAN protocol that operates at the physical and
data link layers of the OSI reference model.
• Frame relay is a type of WAN connection use to
connect one site to many remote sites through a
single physical circuit, this operation makes it
easy to construct reliable and inexpensive
networks.
6

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
•Before Frame Relay X.25 was used
•X.25 offered 64Kbps data rate
•Frame Relay is Virtual-circuit WAN protocol designed in
early 1990s
•high performance WAN protocol
•Operates at the physical and data link layers
•Connect one site to many remote sites through a single
physical circuit
•Reliable and inexpensive networks. 7

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Frame-Relay Cont…
Frame Relay network is very simple. Frame Relay
connections are created by configuring network
routers or other devices to communicate with a
service provider’s Frame Relay switch. The service
provider configures the Frame Relay switch, which
helps keep end-user configuration tasks minimum.

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Frame-Relay Cont…
The idea behind frame relay is that you have a single
infrastructure from the service provider and multiple
customers are connected to it, effectively sharing
everything.

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Frame-Relay Cont…
In the middle you see a cloud like icon. This icon is the
frame relay switch. The cloud is called the frame relay
cloud and the reason it has this name is because for us as
customer it’s unknown what happens in the frame relay
cloud. This is the service provider’s infrastructure and we
really don’t care what happens there…
we are the customer and all we want is connectivity!
There are two customers (A and B) and each of them has
a HQ (Headquarters) and a branch office.
10

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Frame-Relay Cont…
One more picture, here’s a frame relay network with three
routers from one company:
There’s a router at the headquarters and we have two branch offices. All of them are
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connected to the frame relay cloud.
Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Frame Relay Virtual Circuits
Frame Relay provides connection-oriented data link layer
communication. This means that a defined communication
exists between each pair of devices and that these
connections are associated with a connection identifier.
This service is implemented by using a Frame Relay
virtual circuit, which is a logical connection created
between two data terminal equipment (DTE) devices
across a Frame Relay packet-switched network (PSN).
12

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
In frame relay there is a difference between the physical

and logical connections.
The physical connection is just the serial cable which is

connected to the provider. Our logical connection is a
virtual circuit.
13

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Virtual Circuits
14

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Virtual circuits provide a bidirectional communications
path from one DTE device to another and are uniquely
identified by a data-link connection identifier (DLCI).
A number of virtual circuits can be multiplexed into a
single physical circuit for transmission across the
network. This capability often can reduce the equipment
and network complexity required to connect multiple
DTE devices.
15

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Types of VCs
Frame Relay virtual circuits fall into two categories:
•Switched Virtual Circuits (SVCs)

•Permanent Virtual Circuits (PVCs)
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Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Switched Virtual Circuits
Switched virtual circuits (SVCs) are temporary connections used in
situations requiring only sporadic data transfer between DTE devices
across the Frame Relay network. A communication session across an SVC
consists of the following four operational states:
Call setup—The virtual circuit between two Frame Relay DTE
devices is established.
Data transfer—Data is transmitted between the DTE devices over
the virtual circuit.
Idle—The connection between DTE devices is still active, but no
data is transferred. If an SVC remains in an idle state for a defined
period of time, the call can be terminated.
Call termination—The virtual circuit between DTE devices is
terminated.

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Permanent Virtual Circuits
(PVCs)
Permanent virtual circuits (PVCs) are 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
termination states that are used with SVCs. PVCs always operate in
one of the following two operational states:
Data transfer—Data is transmitted between the DTE devices over the
virtual circuit.
Idle—The connection between DTE devices is active, but no data is
transferred. Unlike SVCs, PVCs will not be terminated under any
circumstances when in an idle state.
DTE devices can begin transferring data whenever they are ready
because the circuit is permanently established.
Engr. Z.A. Solangi
DLCI
WAN protocols describe the physical (layer 1) and data link (layer 2).
What does frame relay use on the data link layer?
Frame Relay don’t use MAC addresses since that’s Ethernet but
Frame Relay have something else called a DLCI (Data Link
Connection Identifier).
19

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
DLCI Cont…
Frame Relay virtual circuits are identified by data-link connection
identifiers (DLCIs).
Frame Relay DLCIs have local significance, which means that
their values are unique in the LAN.
The Frame Relay service provider or ISP assigns DLCI numbers.
Usually, DLCIs 0 to 15 and 1008 to 1023 are reserved for special
purposes. However, service providers or ISPs basically assign
DLCIs in the range of 16 to 1007.

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
DLCIs in Frame-Relay
21

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
DLCIs in Frame Relay
For each PVC you will get a DLCI per router.
In our example above you can see that for the PVC
between router HQ and branch office 1 we have DLCI
102 on the HQ router and DLCI 201 on the branch office
1 router.
Between router HQ and router branch office 2 we have

DLCI 103 on HQ and DLCI 301 on branch office 2.
DLCI is nothing but a unique identifier for the data link
layer per PVC. 22

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
There is a virtual circuit from branch Office 1 to the
HQ router and another one from branch office 2 to the
HQ routers.
This means that we can send traffic through our virtual
circuits between:

Branch office 1 and HQ.

Branch office 2 and HQ.
23

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
There is no virtual circuit between branch office 1 and
branch office 2. Does this mean there is no connectivity
between them? No you can still have connectivity
between them by sending data to the HQ router!
Of course you can get another virtual circuit between
branch office 1 and branch office 2 but you’ll have to pay
for it.
24

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
You also pay for a certain speed called the CIR
(Committed Information Rate).
Good thing about frame relay is that when no other
customers are using the frame relay network it’s possible
you get a higher speed than what you paid for…
The CIR however is a speed that is guaranteed.
25

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
How do we know if a PVC is working or not?
Frame-relay uses something called LMI which stands

for Local Management Interface.
LMI functions:
It’s a keepalive mechanism.
It tells us whether the PVC is active (or inactive).
It also gives us a DLCI (Data Link Connection Identifier).
26

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
LMI Types
There are 3 types of LMI. They all do the same thing but
there are three standards which are not compatible with
each other. Whatever you choose make sure it’s the same
between two devices.
Default LMI type for Cisco routers is Cisco.
• Cisco
• ANSI T1.617 Annex D
• ITU-T Q.933 Annex A
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Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Every 10 seconds or more, the end device requests a dumb
sequenced response or link status information. If the
network does not respond with the requested information,
the user device may consider the connection to be down.
When the network responds with a FULL STATUS
response, it includes status information about DLCIs that
are allocated to that line. The end device can use this
information to determine whether the logical connections
are able to carry traffic.
28

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Here’s an example of LMI in action. In the middle we

have the frame relay switch. LMI packets are sent
between Router A and the frame relay switch and router
B and the frame relay switch. The frame relay switch tells
our routers that the PVC is active.
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Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Frame-Relay Topologies
Frame-relay can be configured in three
different topologies
•Full-mesh
•Partial-mesh
•Hub and Spoke
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Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Selecting a Frame Relay Topology
Full Mesh
Partial Mesh
Star (Hub and Spoke)

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Full Mesh Topology
Full Mesh Number of
Connections
Number of
PVCs
----------------- --------------
2 1
4 6
6 15
8 28
10 45
In a full mesh topology, all routers have PVCs to all other destinations.
This method, although more costly than hub and spoke, provides direct
connections from each site to all other sites and allows for redundancy.
For example, when one link goes down, a router at site A can reroute traffic
through site C.
As the number of nodes in the full mesh topology increases, the topology
becomes increasingly more expensive.
The formula to calculate the total number of PVCs with a fully meshed WAN
is [n(n - 1)]/2, where n is the number of nodes.
© Copyright 2012 Hidaya Trust (Pakistan) ● A Non-Profit Organization ● www.hidayatrust.org / www,histpk.org 32
Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Star Topology
A star topology, also known as a hub and spoke configuration, is the most
popular Frame Relay network topology because it is the most cost-
effective.
In this topology, remote sites are connected to a central site that generally
provides a service or application.
This is the least expensive topology because it requires the fewest PVCs.
In this example, the central router provides a multipoint connection,
because it is typically using a single interface to interconnect multiple
PVCs.

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
NBMA (non-broadcast multi-
access)
Frame relay is multi-access since all routers can access
the network but you are unable to send broadcasts over
the frame relay network.
No broadcast also means you are unable to send
multicast traffic.
No multicast means you’ll be in trouble with routing
protocols.
Rip version 2, OSPF and EIGRP all use multicast.
Does this mean you can’t use routing protocols with
frame relay? 34

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
RIP, OSPF and EIGRP can also use unicast instead of
multicast.
There is a method to “emulate” broadcasts over your
frame relay network.
35

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
What other problems might we encounter with frame
relay and routing?
Do you remember the characteristics of distance
vector routing protocols (RIP and EIGRP)?
In the picture we configured RIP on all the routers.
Router branch office 1 is sending routing information
towards router Customer HQ.
If we look at the routing table we see this routing
information on router HQ.
36

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
37

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Do you remember the split-horizon rule?
Whatever you learn from your neighbor you don’t
advertise back to them. To be more specific:
whatever you learn on an interface you don’t advertise it
back out on the same interface.
We are using two PVC’s but on router HQ there is still
only one physical interface.
Split-horizon will prevent the advertisement of routing
information towards router branch office 2.
38

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
39

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
How can we solve this problem?
•You can disable split horizon (the default on physical

interfaces).
•You can use sub-interfaces.
40

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
DLCI Mapping to Network Address
• Frame Relay Dynamic Address Mapping

• Static Address Mapping

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Now there is an important concept to grasp and remember
about DLCI. DLCIs are only locally known to the router.
Your router does not know the DLCI of the router on the
other side.
This is different if you compare it to Ethernet.
In Ethernet world you need to know the MAC address of
the computer on the other side in order to send something
to it.
42

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Frame Relay Dynamic Address Mapping
Frame Relay dynamic address mapping relies on Inverse

ARP to resolve a next hop network protocol address to a
local DLCI value. The Frame Relay router sends out
Inverse ARP requests on its PVC to discover the protocol
address of the remote device connected to the Frame
Relay network. The router uses the responses to populate
an address-to-DLCI mapping table on the Frame Relay
router or access server. The router builds and maintains
this mapping table, which contains all resolved Inverse
ARP requests, including both dynamic and static
mapping entries. 43

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Static Address Mapping
A network administrator can compute a manual static

mapping for the next hop protocol address to a local DLCI.
A static map works similarly to dynamic Inverse ARP by
associating a specified next hop protocol address to a local
Frame Relay DLCI. You cannot use Inverse ARP and a map
statement for the same DLCI and protocol. A static frame
Relay map can also be used in a situation in which the
router at the other side of the Frame Relay network does not
support dynamic Inverse ARP for a specific network
protocol.
44

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Inverse ARP
Once the router learns from the switch about available PVCs and their
corresponding DLCIs, the router can send an Inverse ARP request to the other end
of the PVC. (unless statically mapped)
For each supported and configured protocol on the interface, the router sends an
Inverse ARP request for each DLCI. (unless statically mapped)
In effect, the Inverse ARP request asks the remote station for its Layer 3 address.
At the same time, it provides the remote system with the Layer 3 address of the
local system.
The return information from the Inverse ARP is then used to build the Frame Relay
map.

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Minimum Frame Relay Configuration
1 7 2 .1 6 .1 .2 1 7 2 .1 6 .1 .1
F r a m e R e la y
DLCI 101 N e tw o rk DLCI 102
H e a d q u a rte rs S a te llite O ffic e 1
H u b C ity Spokane
HubCity(config)# interface serial 0

HubCity(config-if)# ip address 172.16.1.2 255.255.255.0
HubCity(config-if)# encapsulation frame-relay
Spokane(config)# interface serial 0

Spokane(config-if)# ip address 172.16.1.1 255.255.255.0
Spokane(config-if)# encapsulation frame-relay

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Minimum Frame Relay Configuration
1 7 2 .1 6 .1 .2 1 7 2 .1 6 .1 .1
F r a m e R e la y
DLCI 101 N e tw o rk D LC I 102
H u b C ity Spokane
Cisco Router is now ready to act as a Frame-Relay DTE device.
The following process occurs:

1. The interface is enabled.
2. The Frame-Relay switch announces the configured DLCI(s) to the router.
3. Inverse ARP is performed to map remote network layer addresses to the
local DLCI(s).
The routers can now ping each other!

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Inverse ARP
1 7 2 .1 6 .1 .2 1 7 2 .1 6 .1 .1
F r a m e R e la y
D LC I 101 N e tw o rk D LC I 102
H u b C ity Spokane
HubCity# show frame-relay map

Serial0 (up): ip 172.16.1.1 dlci 101, dynamic, broadcast,
status defined, active
• dynamic refers to the router learning the IP address via Inverse ARP
• The DLCI 101 is configured on the Frame Relay Switch by the
provider.
• We will see this in a moment.

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
clear frame-relay-inarp
To clear dynamically created Frame Relay maps, which are created using
Inverse ARP, use the clear frame-relay-inarp command.

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
Verifying Frame Relay interface
configuration
The show interfaces serial command displays information regarding

the encapsulation and the status of Layer 1 and Layer 2.
It also displays information about the multicast DLCI, the DLCIs used on the
Frame Relay-configured serial interface, and the DLCI used for the
LMI signaling.
Engr. Z.A. Solangi
show frame-relay pvc
The command show frame-relay pvc shows the status of all PVCs
configured on the router.
This command is also useful for viewing the number of Backward Explicit
Congestion Notification (BECN) and Forward Explicit Congestion
Notification (FECN) packets received by the router.
If a single PVC is specified, only the status of that PVC is shown.
Engr. Z.A. Solangi
show frame-relay map
The show frame-relay map command displays the current map entries
and information about the connections.
Rick Graziani
Engr. Z.A. Solangi
show frame-relay lmi
The show frame-relay lmi command displays LMI traffic statistics

showing the number of status messages exchanged between the local
router and the Frame Relay switch.

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
clear frame-relay-inarp
To clear dynamically created Frame Relay maps, which are created using
Inverse ARP, use the clear frame-relay-inarp command.

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
55

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
56

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
57

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
58

Engr. Z.A. Solangi
THE END
59

Engr. Z.A. Solangi

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© Copyright 2012 Hidaya Trust (Pakistan) ● A Non-Profit Organization ● www.hidayatrust.org / www,histpk.org

© Copyright 2012 Hidaya Trust (Pakistan) ● A Non-Profit Organization ● www.hidayatrust.org / www,histpk.org

© Copyright 2012 Hidaya Trust (Pakistan) ● A Non-Profit Organization ● www.hidayatrust.org / www,histpk.org

© Copyright 2012 Hidaya Trust (Pakistan) ● A Non-Profit Organization ● www.hidayatrust.org / www,histpk.org

© Copyright 2012 Hidaya Trust (Pakistan) ● A Non-Profit Organization ● www.hidayatrust.org / www,histpk.org

© Copyright 2012 Hidaya Trust (Pakistan) ● A Non-Profit Organization ● www.hidayatrust.org / www,histpk.org

© Copyright 2012 Hidaya Trust (Pakistan) ● A Non-Profit Organization ● www.hidayatrust.org / www,histpk.org

© Copyright 2012 Hidaya Trust (Pakistan) ● A Non-Profit Organization ● www.hidayatrust.org / www,histpk.org

© Copyright 2012 Hidaya Trust (Pakistan) ● A Non-Profit Organization ● www.hidayatrust.org / www,histpk.org

In frame relay there is a difference between the physical

The physical connection is just the serial cable which is

© Copyright 2012 Hidaya Trust (Pakistan) ● A Non-Profit Organization ● www.hidayatrust.org / www,histpk.org

© Copyright 2012 Hidaya Trust (Pakistan) ● A Non-Profit Organization ● www.hidayatrust.org / www,histpk.org

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Frame Relay virtual circuits fall into two categories:

•Switched Virtual Circuits (SVCs)

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Between router HQ and router branch office 2 we have

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The CIR however is a speed that is guaranteed.

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Frame-relay uses something called LMI which stands

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Here’s an example of LMI in action. In the middle we

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Star (Hub and Spoke)

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•You can disable split horizon (the default on physical

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• Frame Relay Dynamic Address Mapping

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Frame Relay dynamic address mapping relies on Inverse

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A network administrator can compute a manual static

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HubCity(config)# interface serial 0

Spokane(config)# interface serial 0

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Cisco Router is now ready to act as a Frame-Relay DTE device.

The following process occurs:

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HubCity# show frame-relay map

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