86 Chapter 4: Fundamentals of WANs

Table 4-3 WAN Terminology (Continued)

Term Definition

Four-wire A line from the telco with four wires, composed of two twisted-pair wires. Each
circuit pair is used to send in one direction, so a four-wire circuit allows full-duplex
communication.

T1 A line from the telco that allows transmission of data at 1.544 Mbps.

E1 Similar to a T1, but used in Europe. It uses a rate of 2.048 Mbps and 32 64-kbps
channels.

Also, just for survival when talking about WANs, keep in mind that all the following terms
may be used to refer to a point-to-point leased line as covered so far in this chapter:

leased line, leased circuit, link, serial link, serial line, point-to-point link, circuit

Frame Relay and Packet-Switching Services

Service providers offer a class of WAN services, different from leased lines, that can be
categorized as packet-switching services. In a packet-switching service, physical WAN
connectivity exists, similar to a leased line. However, a company can connect a large
number of routers to the packet-switching service, using a single serial link from each
router into the packet-switching service. Once connected, each router can send packets to
all the other routers—much like all the devices connected to an Ethernet hub or switch can
send data directly to each other.

Two types of packet-switching service are very popular today, Frame Relay and Asynchronous
Transfer Mode (ATM), with Frame Relay being much more common. This section introduces
the main concepts behind packet-switching services, and explains the basics of Frame Relay.

The Scaling Benefits of Packet Switching

Point-to-point WANs can be used to connect a pair of routers at multiple remote sites.
However, an alternative WAN service, Frame Relay, has many advantages over point-to-
point links, particularly when you connect many sites via a WAN. To introduce you to
Frame Relay, this section focuses on a few of the key benefits compared to leased lines, one
of which you can easily see when considering the illustration in Figure 4-7.

Figure 4-7 Two Leased Lines to Two Branch Offices

CSU/DSU CSU/DSU BO1

R1
CSU/DSU CSU/DSU BO2
 Frame Relay and Packet-Switching Services 87

In Figure 4-7, a main site is connected to two branch offices, labeled BO1 and BO2. The
main site router, R1, requires two serial interfaces and two separate CSU/DSUs. But what
happens when the company grows to 10 sites? Or 100 sites? Or 500 sites? For each point-
to-point line, R1 needs a separate physical serial interface and a separate CSU/DSU. As you
can imagine, growth to hundreds of sites will take many routers, with many interfaces each,
and lots of rack space for the routers and CSU/DSUs.

Now imagine that the phone company salesperson says the following to you when you have
two leased lines, or circuits, installed (as shown in Figure 4-7):

You know, we can install Frame Relay instead. You will need only one serial interface
on R1 and one CSU/DSU. To scale to 100 sites, you might need two or three more serial
interfaces on R1 for more bandwidth, but that is it. And by the way, because your leased
lines run at 128 kbps today, we will guarantee that you can send and receive that much
data to and from each site. We will upgrade the line at R1 to T1 speed (1.544 Mbps).
When you have more traffic than 128 kbps to a site, go ahead and send it! If we have
capacity, we will forward it, with no extra charge. And by the way, did I tell you that it is
cheaper than leased lines anyway?

You consider the facts for a moment: Frame Relay is cheaper, it is at least as fast as
(probably faster than) what you have now, and it allows you to save money when you grow.
So, you quickly sign the contract with the Frame Relay provider, before the salesperson can
change their mind, and migrate to Frame Relay. Does this story seem a bit ridiculous? Sure.
The cost and scaling benefits of Frame Relay, as compared to leased lines, however, are
very significant. As a result, many networks moved from using leased lines to Frame Relay,
particularly in the 1990s, with a significantly large installed base of Frame Relay networks
today. In the next few pages, you will see how Frame Relay works and realize how Frame
Relay can provide functions claimed by the fictitious salesperson.

Frame Relay Basics

Frame Relay networks provide more features and benefits than simple point-to-point WAN
links, but to do that, Frame Relay protocols are more detailed. Frame Relay networks are
multiaccess networks, which means that more than two devices can attach to the network,
similar to LANs. To support more than two devices, the protocols must be a little more
detailed. Figure 4-8 introduces some basic connectivity concepts for Frame Relay.
Figure 4-8 reflects the fact that Frame Relay uses the same Layer 1 features as a point-to-
point leased line. For a Frame Relay service, a leased line is installed between each router
and a nearby Frame Relay switch; these links are called access links. The access links run
at the same speed and use the same signaling standards as do point-to-point leased lines.
However, instead of extending from one router to the other, each leased line runs from one
router to a Frame Relay switch.
88 Chapter 4: Fundamentals of WANs

Figure 4-8 Frame Relay Components

Access Frame Access

Link Relay Link
DCE DCE
DTE DTE

R1 R2
Frame Frame
Relay Relay
Switch Switch

The difference between Frame Relay and point-to-point links is that the equipment in the
telco actually examines the data frames sent by the router. Frame Relay defines its own
data-link header and trailer. Each Frame Relay header holds an address field called a data-
link connection identifier (DLCI). The WAN switch forwards the frame based on the DLCI,
sending the frame through the provider’s network until it gets to the remote-site router on
the other side of the Frame Relay cloud.

NOTE The Frame Relay header and trailer are defined by a protocol called Link Access
Procedure – Frame (LAPF).

Because the equipment in the telco can forward one frame to one remote site and another
frame to another remote site, Frame Relay is considered to be a form of packet switching.
This term means that the service provider actually chooses where to send each data packet
sent into the provider’s network, switching one packet to one device, and the next packet to
another. However, Frame Relay protocols most closely resemble OSI Layer 2 protocols; the
term usually used for the bits sent by a Layer 2 device is frame. So, Frame Relay is also
called a frame-switching service, while the term packet switching is a more general term.

The terms DCE and DTE actually have a second set of meanings in the context of any
packet-switching or frame-switching service. With Frame Relay, the Frame Relay switches
are called DCE, and the customer equipment—routers, in this case—are called DTE. In this
case, DCE refers to the device providing the service, and the term DTE refers to the device
needing the frame-switching service. At the same time, the CSU/DSU provides clocking to
the router, so from a Layer 1 perspective, the CSU/DSU is still the DCE and the router is
still the DTE. It is just two different uses of the same terms.

Figure 4-8 depicted the physical and logical connectivity at each connection to the Frame
Relay network. In contrast, Figure 4-9 shows the end-to-end connectivity associated with a
virtual circuit (VC).
 Frame Relay and Packet-Switching Services 89

Figure 4-9 Frame Relay VC Concepts

R1 R2
Virtual
DLCI X DLCI Y
Circuit

The logical path that a frame travels between each pair of routers is called a Frame Relay
VC. In Figure 4-9, a single VC is represented by the dashed line between the routers.
Typically, the service provider preconfigures all the required details of a VC; these VCs
are called permanent virtual circuits (PVC). When R1 needs to forward a packet to R2,
it encapsulates the Layer 3 packet into a Frame Relay header and trailer and then sends
the frame. R1 uses a Frame Relay address called a DLCI in the Frame Relay header,
with the DLCI identifying the correct VC to the provider. This allows the switches to
deliver the frame to R2, ignoring the details of the Layer 3 packet and looking at only
the Frame Relay header and trailer. Recall that on a point-to-point serial link, the service
provider forwards the frame over a physical circuit between R1 and R2. This transaction
is similar in Frame Relay, where the provider forwards the frame over a logical VC from
R1 to R2.

Frame Relay provides significant advantages over simply using point-to-point leased lines.
The primary advantage has to do with VCs. Consider Figure 4-10 with Frame Relay instead
of three point-to-point leased lines. Frame Relay creates a logical path (a VC) between
two Frame Relay DTE devices. A VC acts like a point-to-point circuit, but physically it is
not—it is virtual. For example, R1 terminates two VCs—one whose other endpoint is R2
and one whose other endpoint is R3. R1 can send traffic directly to either of the other two
routers by sending it over the appropriate VC, although R1 has only one physical access
link to the Frame Relay network.

VCs share the access link and the Frame Relay network. For example, both VCs
terminating at R1 use the same access link. So, with large networks with many WAN sites
that need to connect to a central location, only one physical access link is required from the
main site router to the Frame Relay network. By contrast, using point-to-point links would
require a physical circuit, a separate CSU/DSU, and a separate physical interface on the
router for each point-to-point link. So, Frame Relay enables you to expand the WAN but
add less hardware to do so.
90 Chapter 4: Fundamentals of WANs

Figure 4-10 Typical Frame Relay Network with Three Sites

Bob

R2

Larry

R1

Junior

R3

Many customers of a single Frame Relay service provider share that provider’s Frame
Relay network. Originally, people with leased-line networks were reluctant to migrate to
Frame Relay because they would be competing with other customers for the provider’s
capacity inside the service provider’s network. To address these fears, Frame Relay is
designed with the concept of a committed information rate (CIR). Each VC has a CIR,
which is a guarantee by the provider that a particular VC gets at least that much bandwidth.
You can think of the CIR of a VC like the bandwidth or clock rate of a point-to-point circuit,
except that it is the minimum value—you can actually send more, in most cases.

Even in this three-site network, it is probably less expensive to use Frame Relay than to use
point-to-point links. Now imagine a much larger network, with a 100 sites, that needs any-to-
any connectivity. A point-to-point link design would require 4950 leased lines! In addition, you
would need 99 serial interfaces per router. By contrast, with a Frame Relay design, you could
have 100 access links to local Frame Relay switches (1 per router) with 4950 VCs running over
the access links. Also, you would need only one serial interface on each router. As a result, the
Frame Relay topology is easier for the service provider to implement, costs the provider less,
and makes better use of the core of the provider’s network. As you would expect, that makes it
less expensive to the Frame Relay customer as well. For connecting many WAN sites, Frame
Relay is simply more cost-effective than leased lines.