Designing a wide area network (WAN) is one of the most challenging issues.

We must have to
choose the correct connection type. Most carriers offer three connection types:

1. Circuit-switched connections
2. Packet-switched or cell-switched connections
3. Dedicated connection

Circuit-switched connections:

Asynchronous dial-in (PSTN) and ISDN services, the telephone companies use circuit switching.

Packet-switched or cell-switched connections

Examples of packet-switched and cell-switched networks include Frame Relay (packet-

switched), X.25 (packet-switched), and Asynchronous Transfer Mode or ATM (cell-switched).

Leased Line(Dedicated connection):

A permanent communication path exists between a Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) on

one site and a CPE at the remote site communicating through a Data Communicating
Equipment (DCE) within the providers' site. Synchronous serial lines are used for this
connection and the most frequent protocols observed in these lines are HDLC (High-Level
Data Link Control) and PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol). When cost in not an issue, you should
use this type of connection.

HDLC

HDLC stands for High-Level Data Link Control protocol.

HDLC is a Layer 2 protocol.

HDLC would be the protocol with the least amount of configuration required to connect these
two locations. HDLC would be running over the WAN, between the two locations.

HDLC performs error correction, just like Ethernet.

HDLC is actually proprietary because they added a protocol type field.

HDLC is actually the default protocol on all Cisco serial interfaces.

PPP

PPP or Point-to-Point Protocol is a type of Layer 2 protocol (Data-link layer) used mainly for
WAN. PPP features two methods of authentication:
PAP (Password Authentication Protocol) and
CHAP (Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol)
PAP sends the password in clear text and CHAP sends the encrypted password
PPP encapsulation is possible only over a serial link.
PPP encapsulates Layer 3 data over point-to-point links.
PPP uses a Network Control Protocol (NCP) component to encapsulate multiple protocols and
uses Link Control Protocol (LCP) to set up and negotiate control options on the data link.
PPP supports multivendor devices.

Configuration on Ashish Router

Router#conf t
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Router(config)#interface serial 0/1/0
Router(config-if)#ip address 103.13.148.1 255.255.255.248
Router(config-if)#no shutdown
Router(config-if)#exit
Ashish(config)#interface fastEthernet 0/0
Ashish(config-if)#ip add
Ashish(config-if)#ip address 192.168.10.1 255.255.255.0
Ashish(config-if)#no shut
Ashish(config-if)#no shutdown

Router(config)#hostname Ashish
Ashish(config)#username buet privilege 15 password cisco
Ashish(config)#interface serial 0/1/0
Ashish(config-if)#encapsulation ppp
Ashish(config-if)#ppp authentication chap
Ashish(config-if)#exit

For PPP configuration we must configure hostname and username. In this router username will
be the hostname of peer router , i.e. buet

Ashish(config)#ip route 192.168.20.0 255.255.255.0 103.13.148.2

Ashish(config)#

Router#conf t
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Router(config)#hostname buet

buet(config)#interface serial 0/1/0

buet(config-if)#ip address 103.13.148.2 255.255.255.248
buet(config-if)#no shutdown
buet(config)#interface fastEthernet 0/0
buet(config-if)#ip address 192.168.20.1 255.255.255.0
buet(config-if)#no shutdown

buet(config)#username Ashish privilege 15 password cisco

buet(config)#interface serial 0/1/0
buet(config-if)#encapsulation ppp
buet(config-if)#ppp authentication chap
buet(config-if)#end
buet#

In this router username will be the hostname of peer router , i.e. Ashish

buet(config)#ip route 192.168.10.0 255.255.255.0 103.13.148.1

Verification :

Ashish#show interfaces serial 0/1/0

Serial0/1/0 is up, line protocol is up (connected)

Hardware is HD64570
Internet address is 103.13.148.1/29
MTU 1500 bytes, BW 128 Kbit, DLY 20000 usec,
reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 1/255
Encapsulation PPP, loopback not set, keepalive set (10 sec)
LCP Open
Open: IPCP, CDPCP
Last input never, output never, output hang never
Last clearing of "show interface" counters never
Input queue: 0/75/0 (size/max/drops); Total output drops: 0
Queueing strategy: weighted fair
Output queue: 0/1000/64/0 (size/max total/threshold/drops)
Conversations 0/0/256 (active/max active/max total)
Reserved Conversations 0/0 (allocated/max allocated)
Available Bandwidth 96 kilobits/sec
5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
5 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
8 packets input, 1024 bytes, 0 no buffer
Received 0 broadcasts, 0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored, 0 abort
9 packets output, 1152 bytes, 0 underruns

C:\>ping 192.168.20.2

Pinging 192.168.20.2 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.20.2: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=126

Reply from 192.168.20.2: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=126
Reply from 192.168.20.2: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=126
Reply from 192.168.20.2: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=126

The clock rate will set the speed. It doesn’t matter much what clock speed we use. We can
use a command to verify that the DTE router has received the clock rate:

Ashish# show controllers serial 0/1/0

Interface Serial0/1/0
Hardware is PowerQUICC MPC860
DTE V.35 TX and RX clocks detected

idb at 0x81081AC4, driver data structure at 0x81084AC0

In the example above Ashish is the DTE side and it has received a clock rate. Show controllers
is a useful command when you don’t have physical access to your hardware so you don’t know
which side of the cable is DTE or DCE.