FRAME RELAY
by Erdem YILMAZ
What is Frame Relay?
high-performance WAN protocol operates at the physical and data link layers Originally designed for use across ISDN interfaces An example of packet-switched technology described as a streamlined version of X.25
Frame Relay vs. X.25
Frame Relay is a Layer 2 protocol suite, X.25 provides services at Layer 3 Frame Relay offers higher performance and greater transmission efficiency than X.25
Frame Relay Devices
data terminal equipment (DTE)
terminating
equipment for a specific network typically are located on the premises of a customer Examples: terminals, personal computers, routers, and bridges
Frame Relay Devices
data circuit-terminating equipment (DCE)
carrier-owned
internetworking devices to provide clocking and switching services in a network actually transmit data through the WAN
Frame Relay Devices
Figure 1 Frame Relay Devices
Frame Relay Virtual Circuits
provides connection-oriented data link layer communication a logical connection between two data terminal equipment across a Frame Relay packet-switched network provide a bi-directional communications path from one DTE device to another
Frame Relay Virtual Circuits
Switched virtual circuits (SVCs)
temporary
connections requires sporadic data transfer between DTE devices across the Frame Relay network
Call Setup Data Transfer Idle Call Termination
Frame Relay Virtual Circuits
Permanent Virtual Circuits (PVCs)
used
for frequent and consistent data transfers between DTE devices across the Frame Relay network
Data Transfer Idle
Congestion Control Mechanism
Forward-explicit congestion notification (FECN) Backward-explicit congestion notification (BECN)
Forward-explicit congestion notification (FECN)
initiated when a DTE device sends Frame Relay frames into the network When the frames reach the destination DTE device, the frame experienced congestion in the path from source to destination flow-control may be initiated, or the indication may be ignored
Backward-explicit congestion notification (BECN)
DCE devices set the value of the BECN bit to 1 in frames traveling in the opposite direction, informs the receiving DTE device that a particular path through the network is congested flow-control may be initiated, or the indication may be ignored
Frame Relay Discard Eligibility (DE)
(DE) bit is used to indicate that a frame has lower importance than other frames When the network becomes congested, DCE devices will discard frames with the DE bit
Frame Relay Error Checking
common error-checking mechanism known as the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) CRC compares two calculated values to determine whether errors occurred during the transmission
Frame Relay Network Implementation
consists of a number of DTE devices connected to remote ports on multiplexer equipment via traditional point-to-point services
Frame Relay Network Implementation
Figure 2 A simple Frame Relay network connects various devices to different services over a WAN.
Public Carrier-Provided Networks
Frame Relay switching equipment is located in the central offices of a telecommunications carrier The DCE equipment also is owned by the telecommunications provider The majority of todays Frame Relay networks are public carrier-provided networks
Private Enterprise Networks
the administration and maintenance of the network are the responsibilities of the enterprise All the equipment, including the switching equipment, is owned by the customer
Frame Relay Frames
Figure 3
Frame Relay Frame
Frame Relay Frames
Flags indicate the beginning and end of the frame Three primary components make up the Frame Relay frame
the
header and address area the user-data portion the frame-check sequence (FCS)
Frame Relay Frames
The address area (2 bytes)
10
bits represents the actual circuit identifier 6 bits of fields related to congestion management
Frame Relay Frame Formats
Standard Frame Relay Frame LMI Frame Format
Standard Frame Relay Frame
Flags
Delimits
the beginning and end of the frame The value of this field is always the same (7E or 01111110)
Standard Frame Relay Frame
Address contains the following information
DLCI:
The 10-bit DLCI is the essence of the Frame Relay header, values have local significance only, devices at opposite ends can use different DLCI values for the same virtual connection
Standard Frame Relay Frame
Address
Extended
Address (EA): used to indicate whether the byte in which the EA value is 1 is the last addressing field, the eighth bit of each byte of the Address field is used to indicate the EA
Standard Frame Relay Frame
Address
Congestion
Control: consists of the three bits; FECN, BECN, and DE bits
Standard Frame Relay Frame
Data Contains encapsulated upper-layer data
serves
to transport the higher-layer protocol packet (PDU) through a Frame Relay network
Standard Frame Relay Frame
Frame Check Sequence
Ensures
the integrity of transmitted data
LMI Frame Format
Figure 4 Nine fields comprise the Frame Relay that conforms to the LMI format
LMI Frame Format
Flag - Delimits the beginning and end of the frame LMI DLCI - Identifies the frame as an LMI frame instead of a basic Frame Relay frame Unnumbered Information Indicator - Sets the poll/final bit to zero
LMI Frame Format
Protocol Discriminator - Always contains a value indicating that the frame is an LMI frame Call Reference - Always contains zeros. This field currently is not used for any purpose Message Type
Status-inquiry
message: Allows a user device to inquire about the status of the network Status message: Responds to status-inquiry messages. Status messages include keep-alives and PVC status messages
LMI Frame Format
Information ElementsContains a variable number of individual information elements (IEs)
IE
Identifier: Uniquely identifies the IE IE Length: Indicates the length of the IE Data: Consists of one or more bytes containing encapsulated upper-layer data
Frame Check Sequence (FCS) - Ensures the integrity of transmitted data
Thanks For Listening
Erdem YILMAZ