Lecture – Frame Relay

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 Lecture 05 - Objectives
• A Business Scenario
• Introduction to Frame Relay Technology
• Frame Relay Devices
• Frame Relay Virtual Circuits
• Data Link Connection Identifiers (DLCIs)
• Frame Relay Congestion Control (FECN,
BECN, DE)
• Frame Relay Frame Format
• Committed Information Rate (CIR)
• Local Management Interface (LMI)
• X.25 vs. Frame Relay.

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 A Business Scenario
• Consider a company with 4 remote offices
that requires an interconnection between
these locations are needed
• The business requirements are:
– High performance service
– Constant Availability
– Minimum Delays
– Transmission of Data not voice
– Cost effective

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 A Business Scenario (2)
• Possible Options:
– Dial up telephone line
– Leased Line
• Dial-up Telephone Line
– Not permanent
– Not fast
– Not originally designed for data traffic
– Introduces Delays

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University of Education, Multan Campus. Internet Architecture & Protocols.
 A Business Scenario (3)
• Leased Line Option:
– expensive
– Not fast enough

• Optimal Solution: Frame Relay Technology

– To install frame relay, the company would ask for six
PVCs in place of the six leased lines.
– The company would also need four high speed telephone
lines and four ports connecting the four locations to the
frame relay cloud.

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University of Education, Multan Campus. Internet Architecture & Protocols.
 Frame Relay versus Pure Mesh T-Line Network

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 Frame Relay – an Introduction
• Frame Relay is a high performance WAN protocol
that operates at the physical and data link layer of
OSI model
• It was originally designed for transmitting data over
fixed lines (not dial up lines).
• It provides digital data transfer over long distances
and at higher data transfer rates
• Supports Lower delay and Higher throughput
• ITU-T recommend frame relay above 2Mbps

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 Frame Relay (2)
• It is an efficient packet switched service
• Uses variable-length data link layer packets called
frames to send information through a shared Frame
Relay network.
• No hop by hop error or flow control
• End to end flow and error control (if used) are done
by higher layer
• Single user data frame sent from source to
destination and ACK (from higher layer) sent back

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 Frame Relay Network

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 Frame Relay Stack
Frame Relay supports multiple upper-layer protocols

OSI Reference Model Frame Relay

Application

Presentation

Session
Transport
Network IP/IPX/AppleTalk, etc.
Data Link Frame Relay
EIA/TIA-232,
Physical EIA/TIA-449, V.35,
X.21, EIA/TIA-530

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 Techniques used in Packet Switching
• Two techniques are used in packet-switching
technology:
– Variable-length packets
• Flexible data transfer
– Statistical multiplexing
• many logical data conversations (referred to as virtual circuits) over a
single physical transmission link.
• means that only one frame can be transmitted at a time but many
logical connections can co-exist on a single physical line
• In SM devices are assigned time slots according to need and prioity
• SM is a method of interleaving the data input of two or more devices
on a single channel
• Efficient use of resources
• Bandwidth is not wasted

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 Frame Relay Standardization
• Internationally, Frame Relay was standardized by
the International Telecommunication Union—
Telecommunications Standards Section (ITU-T).
• In the United States, Frame Relay is an American
National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard.

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 Bursty Data
• Some wide area networks provide its user a fixed data rate.
• For example, a T-1 line is designed for a user who wants to
use the line at consistent 1.544 Mbps.
• This type of service is not suitable for many users today that
need to send bursty data.
• For example, a user may want to send data at 6 Mbps for 2
seconds, 0 Mbps (nothing) for 7 seconds, and 3.44 Mbps for 1
second for a total of 1.544 Mbps during a period of 10
seconds.
• Although, the average data rate is still 1.544 Mbps, the T-1
line can’t accept this type of demand because it is designed
for fixed-rate data, not bursty data.
• Bursty data requires what is called bandwidth on demand.
The user needs different bandwidth allocation at different
times.

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 Fixed-Rate versus Bursty Data

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 Frame Relay Devices
• Devices attached to a Frame Relay WAN fall into
the following two general categories:
– Data terminal equipment (DTE)
– Data circuit-terminating equipment (DCE)

• Data Terminal Equipment (DTE)

– DTEs are connected to a Frame Relay service from a
telecommunications company and typically reside at sites
used by the company buying the Frame Relay service.
• Data circuit-terminating equipment (DCE)
– Frame Relay switches are DCE devices. DCEs are also
known as data circuit-terminating equipment. DCEs are
typically in the service provider’s network.

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 Frame Relay Devices

DCE Devices Generally Reside Within Carrier-Operated WANs

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 Frame Relay Virtual Circuit
• Virtual Circuit Identifier
– A VCI is a small number that used by a frame
between two switches.
– It is the identifier that is actually used for data
transfer is called virtual circuit identifier (VCI).
– When a frame arrives at a switch, it has one
VCI, when it leaves, it has another.
• Three Phases
– To communicate, a source and destination need
to go through three phases:
• Setup
• Data transfer
• Teardown

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 VC Setup Phase Details
• To transfer a frame from source to destination, all
the switches need to have a table entry for this VC.
• If there is a need for duplex communication, two
virtual circuits are established

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 VCI phases

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 Virtual circuit wide area network

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 VCI

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 Switch and table

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 Frame Relay Virtual Circuits
• Switched Virtual Circuits
– Call Setup
– Data Transfer
– Call Termination
• Permanent Virtual Circuits
– Data Transfer
– Idle

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 Setup Phase
• How does a switch create an entry for a
virtual circuit?
• There are two approaches here:
– Permanent virtual circuit (PVC)
– Switched virtual circuit (SVC)
• Permanent virtual circuit (PVC)
– In this case, the connection setup is simple. The
corresponding table entry is recorded for all switches by
the administrator (remotely and electronically)
– An outgoing VCI is given to the source, and an incoming
VCI is given to the destination.
– The source always uses the VCI to send frames to
particular destination.
– If there is a need for duplex communication, two virtual
circuits are established.
University of Education, Multan Campus. Internet Architecture & Protocols.
 Setup Phase…
• Switched virtual circuit (SVC)
– PVC connections have two drawbacks.
• They are costly because two parties pay for
the connection all the time even when it is not
in use.
• A connection is created from one source to
one single destination. If a source needs
connections with several destinations, it
needs a PVC for each connection.
– An alternate approach is SVC.
– The SVC creates a temporary, short connection
that exists only when data are being transferred
between source and destination.
– An SVC requires a connection phase.

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 SVC Setup Request

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 SVC Setup Request
• Suppose source A needs to create a virtual circuit to B. Two
steps are required, the setup request and acknowledgement.
• Setup Request
– A setup request frame is sent from the source to the
destination.
1. Source A sends a setup frame to switch 1.
2. Switch 1 receives the setup request frame. It knows that a
frame going from A to B goes out through port 3. How the
switch has this information? The switch in setup phase,
acts as a router; it has a routing table which is different
from the switching table. For the moment, assume that it
knows the output port. The switch creates an entry in its
table for this virtual circuit, but it is only able to fill three
of the four columns. The switch assigns the incoming port
(1) and chooses an available incoming VCI, which will be
found during the acknowledgement step. The switch then
forwards the frame through port 3 to switch 2.

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 SVC Setup Request
3. Switch 2 receives the setup request frame. The
same events happen here as at switch 1; three
columns of the table are completed: in this
case, incoming port 1, incoming VCI 66, and
outgoing port 2.
4. Switch 3 receives the setup request frame.
Again, three columns are completed: incoming
port 2, incoming VCI 22, and outgoing port 3.
5. Destination B receives the setup frame, and if it
is ready to receive frames from A, it assigns a
VCI to the incoming frames that come from A,
and not other sources.

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 SVC Setup Acknowledgment

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 SVC Setup Acknowledgment
• Acknowledgement
– A special frame, called the acknowledgement frame, can
complete the entries in the switching tables.
1. The destination sends an acknowledgement to switch 3.
The acknowledgement carries the global source and
destination addresses so the switch knows which entry in
the table is to be completed. The frame also carries VCI
77, chosen by the destination as the incoming VCI for
frames from A. Switch 3 uses this VCI to complete the
outgoing VCI column for this entry. Note that 77 is the
incoming VCI for destination B, but outgoing VCI for
switch 3.
2. Switch 3 sends an acknowledgement to switch 2 that
contains its incoming VCI in the table, chosen in the
previous step. Switch 2 uses this as the outgoing VCI in
the table.

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 SVC Setup Acknowledgment
3. Switch 2 sends an acknowledgement to switch
1 that contains its incoming VCI in the table.
Chosen in the previous step. Switch 1 uses this
as the outgoing VCI in the table.
4. Finally switch 1 sends an acknowledgement to
source A that contains its incoming VCI in the
table, chosen in the previous step.
5. The source uses this as the outgoing VCI for the
data frames to be sent to destination B.

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 Data Transfer Phase…
• To transfer a frame from a source to its
destination, all switches need to have a table entry
for this virtual circuit.
• The table, in its simplest form, has four columns.
This means that the switch holds four pieces of
information for each virtual circuit that is already
set up.
• The first figure shows a frame arriving at port 1
with a VCI of 14. When the frame arrives, the
switch looks in its table to find port 1, and VCI 14.
When it is found, the switch knows to change the
VCI to 66 and send out the frame from port 3.
• The second figure shows how a frame from source
A reaches destination B and how its VCI changes
during the trip. Each switch changes the VCI and
routes the frame.
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 Teardown Phase
• In this phase, source A, after sending all
frames to B, sends a special frame called
teardown request.
• Destination B responds with a teardown
confirmation frame.
• All switches erase the corresponding entry
from their tables.

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 Source-to-destination data transfer

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 VC Entries in Switching Tables
Incoming Outgoing Incoming Outgoing
Port VCI Port VCI Port VCI Port VCI
1 14 3 2 22 3
… … … … … … … …

A X X B

X
Incoming Outgoing
Port VCI Port VCI
1 66 2
… … … …

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 VC Entries in Switching Tables
Incoming Outgoing Incoming Outgoing
Port VCI Port VCI Port VCI Port VCI
1 14 3 66 2 22 3 77
… … … … … … … …

A X X B

X
Incoming Outgoing
Port VCI Port VCI
1 66 2 22
… … … …

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University of Education, Multan Campus. Internet Architecture & Protocols.
 Frame Relay Frame Formats

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 Frame Relay Frame

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 Data-Link Connection Identifier
• Frame Relay virtual circuits are identified
by data-link connection identifiers (DLCIs).
• DLCI values typically are assigned by the
Frame Relay service provider (for example,
the telephone company).
• Frame Relay DLCIs have local significance,
which means that their values are unique
in the LAN, but not necessarily in the
Frame Relay WAN.

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 Data-Link Connection Identifier
• A virtual circuits in Frame Relay are
identified by data-link connection identifiers
(DLCIs).
• A switch assigns a DLCI to each virtual
connection in an interface.
• In other words, DLCIs are unique for a
particular interface.

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 DLCIs

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 PVC DLCIs

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 SVC DLCIs

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 DLCIs Inside a Network

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 Frame Relay Switch

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 Frame Relay Frame…
• The description of the fields are as follows:
• Address (DLCI) filed
– The first 6 bits of the first byte make up part 1 of
the DLCI. The second part of the DLCI uses the
first four bits of the second byte. These bits are
parts of the 10-bit data link connection identifier
defined by the standard.
• Command/Response (C/R)
– The command/response (C/R) bit is provided to
allow upper layers to identify a frame as either a
command or response. It is not used by the
Frame Relay protocol.

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 Congestion-Control Mechanisms
• congestion being full buffers, over subscribed port,
overloaded resources, etc,
• Frame Relay implements two congestion-
notification mechanisms:
– Forward-explicit congestion notification (FECN)
– Backward-explicit congestion notification
(BECN)

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 FECN and BECN bits
• FECN
– A FECN tells the receiving device (Switch/Destination)
that the path is congested so that the upper layer
protocols should expect some delay.
– It indicates that the available network bandwidth (at that
time) is not as great as can be supported by the
destination terminal.
• BECN
– The BECN tells the transmitting device (Source) that the
Frame Relay network is congested and that it should
"back off" to allow better throughput.
– It means the available network bandwidth (at that time) is
not as great as can be supported by the source.

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 Frame Relay Frame…
• Forward Explicit Congestion Notification
(FECN)
– The Forward Explicit Congestion Notification
(FECN) bit can be set (1) by any switch to
indicate the traffic is congested in the direction
in which the frame is traveling. This bit informs
the destination that congestion has occurred.
• Backward Explicit Congestion Notification
(BECN)
– The Backward Explicit Congestion Notification
(BECN) bit is set to indicate a congestion
problem in the direction opposite to the one in
which the frame is traveling. This bit informs the
sender that congestion has occurred.

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 FECN BECN
• If the network is • DCE devices set the value of
congested, DCE devices the BECN bit to 1 in frames
(switches) set the value of traveling in the opposite
the frames' FECN bit to 1 direction of frames with
• The destination DTE their FECN bit set.
device can relay this • This informs the receiving
information to a higher- DTE device that a
layer protocol for particular path through the
processing. network is congested
• Depending on the • It is an indication for
implementation, flow source device to slow down
control may be initiated, its data sending speed to
or the indication may be avoid congestion
ignored.

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 Four Cases of Congestion

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 FECN

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 BECN

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 Frame Relay Discard Eligibility
• The Discard Eligibility (DE) bit
– used to indicate that a frame has lower importance than
other frames.
– The DE bit is part of the Address field in the Frame Relay
frame header.
– When the network becomes congested, DCE devices will
discard frames with the DE bit set before discarding those
that do not.
– This reduces the likelihood of critical data being dropped
by Frame Relay DCE devices during periods of congestion.

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 Frame Relay Error Checking
• Frame Relay uses a common error-checking
mechanism known as the cyclic redundancy check
(CRC).
• Error correction can be left to higher-layer
protocols running on top of Frame Relay.
• Frame Relay doesn’t implement Error
Control or Flow Control, it is the
responsibility of upper layers

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 Frame Relay Frame…
• Extended Address
– The extended address (EA)bit indicates whether
the current byte is the final byte of the address.
An EA of 0 means that another address byte is
to follow. An EA of 1 means that the current
byte is the final one.
– To increase the range of DLCIs, the Frame Relay
address has been extended from the original 2-
byte address to 3- or 4-byte address.
– The figure shows the different addresses. Note
that the EA field defines the number of bytes; it
is 1 in the last byte of the address, and it is 0 in
the other bytes. Note that in the 3- and 4-byte
formats, the bit before the last bit is set to 0.

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 Three Address Formats

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 Other Features
• Voice Support
– Frame Relay is now capable of supporting voice
• Use of SVCs
– It can also create switched virtual circuits (SVCs) in
addition to permanent virtual circuits (PVCs)
– An SVC can be created dynamically by the customer.
– Good for short-term connections.

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 Frame Relay Service Charges
• A customer contacts a frame relay provider who
creates a PVC between the customer and to
whomever the customer wants to be connected.
• The customer pays for three services:
– the PVC
– the access to the frame relay network (port charge)
– the telephone line that gives them access to the port.

University of Education, Multan Campus. Internet Architecture & Protocols.

 Frame Relay vs. Internet
• Frame relay has many advantages over the Internet
– guaranteed throughput
– minimum delay
– better security.
• Internet has the advantage of:
– being practically everywhere
– Cheaper
– simpler to create connections (no PVCs necessary).

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 CIR
• Committed Information Rate (CIR)
– It is an agreement between Frame Relay
customer and the service provider.
– The customer requests a particular transmission
speed, and if the customer does not exceed that
rate, the the service provider will guarantee
accurate and timely delivery of data frames.

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 CIR
• The user and frame relay service would agree upon
a committed information rate (CIR).
• The CIR states that if the customer stays within a
specified data rate (standard rate plus a burst rate)
the frame relay provider will guarantee delivery of
99.99% of the frames.
• The burst rate cannot be exceeded for longer than
2 seconds.

University of Education, Multan Campus. Internet Architecture & Protocols.

 CIR
• For example: If a company agrees to a CIR of 512
Kbps with a burst rate of 256 Kbps, the company
must stay at or below 512 Kbps, with an
occasional burst up to 768 Kbps, as long as the
burst does not last longer than 2 seconds.
• If the company maintains their end of the
agreement, the carrier will provide something like
99.99% throughput and a network delay of no
longer than 20 milliseconds.
• If the customer exceeds its CIR, and the network
becomes congested, the customer’s frames may be
discarded.

University of Education, Multan Campus. Internet Architecture & Protocols.

 Local Management Interface
• LMI is a set of enhancements to the basic Frame
Relay specification.
• The LMI was developed in 1990 by Cisco Systems,
Northern Telecom and other org.
• Features Included (called extensions):
– global DLCI addressing
– Virtual circuit status messages
– Multicasting

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University of Education, Multan Campus. Internet Architecture & Protocols.
 LMI Messages
• Perform a keepalive function between the DTE
and DCE. If the access link has a problem, the
absence of keepalive messages implies that the
link is down.
• Signal whether a PVC is active or inactive.
Even though each PVC is predefined, its status
can change. An access link might be up, but one
or more VCs could be down. The router needs to
know which VCs are up and which are down. It
learns that information from the switch using LMI
status messages.

University of Education, Multan Campus. Internet Architecture & Protocols.

 LMI
• LMI is the protocol used between a DCE and DTE to
manage the connection.
• Frame relay was originally designed to provide PVC
connections. There was not, therefore, a provision for
controlling or managing interfaces.
• Local management interface (LMI) is protocol added
recently to the Frame Relay protocol to provide more
management features. In particular, LMI can provide
– A keep-alive mechanism to check if data are flowing.
– A mechanism to allow an end system to check the status of a
switch (e.g, to see if switch is congested).
– A multicast mechanism to allow a local end system to send
frames to more than one remote end system.

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 Evolution of Frame Relay
• X.25 • Frame Relay
– Supports low data rates – Supports very high
(64 kbps) data rates (more than
– Was designed for error- 1Mbps)
free delivery using high – Takes advantage of new
error rate links i.e.noisy low error-rate links,
analog lines eliminates excessive
– Uses layer layer 1, 2, 3 overhead bits used for
– Include flow and error error and flow control
control in X.25
– Considerable overhead – Uses layer 1 and 2
– Involve greater – Do not include flow
processing delays at and error control
node – Very low overhead
– Uses fixed bandwidth – Less processing delays
– Dynamic Bandwidth

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 Comparing Layers in Frame Relay and X.25

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 X.25 Traffic

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 Frame Relay Traffic

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 Leased Lines
• Most home computer users use PSTN lines and
conventional modems to connect to other computer
systems using dial up services.
• If you need a faster service, or need one that is
always on, then you can get a leased line service.A
basic leased line, or tie line, gives you a 56 Kbps
data transfer rate.
• A T-1 (or T1) service gives you a 1.544 Mbps rate
and is used by businesses to connect their in-
house telephone systems (PBX) and data networks
to the outside world.

University of Education, Multan Campus. Internet Architecture & Protocols.

 T1 - Service
• A T-1 service is a digital, synchronous TDM stream
used by businesses and telephone companies.
• A T-1 service is always on and always transmitting.
• One T-1 service can support up to 24 simultaneous
channels. These channels can be either voice or
data (PBX support).
• A T-1 service can also be provisioned as a single
channel delivering 1.544 Mbps of data (LAN to ISP
connection).

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 References
• Data and Computer Communications
– 7th Edition, William Stallings
• Data Communications and Networking
– 3rd Edition, Behrouz A. Forouzan
• Data Communications and Computer
Networks
– Curt M. White
• CCNA ICND Exam Study Guide
– 11th Chapter, Cisco Press 2004
• http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/t
d/doc/cisintwk/ito_doc/frame.htm#w
p1022765
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