Configure Frame Relay on a Cisco Router

Frame relay is an attractive choice for wide-area network (WAN) connections. It offers simple configuration, and allows one telco circuit to connect many locations. First, some terminology:
DLCI Data Link Connection Identifier A number which directs traffic to different destinations

CIR Committed Information Rate Packets transmitted in excess of this rate will be marked as DE (Discard Eligible) BECN Backwards Explicit Congestion Notification Notifies devices of congestion in the network FECN Forward Explicti Congestion Notification Notifies devices of congestion in the network DE Discard Eligible These frames may be dropped when congestion occurs. NOTE: An unconfigured router is assumed, with serial 0/0 and FastEthernet 0/0 interfaces available. This end of the frame relay connection will use DLCI 100. The 192.168.0.4/30 network will be used on the WAN link, 10.1.1.0/24 on the Ethernet, and 10.2.2.0/24 on the remote side. Connect to the routers console port, enter the appropriate passwords, then:
config t

Short for configure terminal, allows entry of configuration commands.

interface FastEthernet0/0

Enters into interface configuration mode. The prompt should change to router#(config-if)
ip address 10.1.1.1 255.255.255.0

Configures the FastEthernet port to use address 10.1.1.1. Machines on this subnet would use this address as the gateway to reach 10.2.2.0.
no shutdown

Enables the port. By default, ports are administratively down.

interface serial 0/0

Change to interface configuration mode for the serial interface.

no shutdown

Enables the port. By default, ports are administratively down.

encapsulation frame-relay

Tells the router to transmit frame relay on this interface, instead of serial (HDLC) Now, there is a choice. The most common method is subinterfaces:
interface serial 0/0.100 point-to-point

Creates the subinterface. Note the 100 can be any number, but using the DLCI number makes troubleshooting easier.

ip address 192.168.0.5 255.255.255.252

Assigns the IP address to the subinterface.

frame-relay interface-dlci 100

Instructs the router to use DLCI 100 for traffic going out this interface and route inbound traffic from DLCI 100 through this interface. All done! Now, the other method, frame mapping:
frame-relay map ip 192.168.0.6 100 broadcast

Associates the destination IP address with a DLCI. Although the configuration is longer, subinterfaces are easier to troubleshoot. If a DLCI fails, the subinterface will appear down in the show ip interfaces brief output. Other useful commands include show frame-relay pvc and show

frame lmi

How To Configure Frame Relay SubInterfaces

In Frame Relay network connection, a physical interface can be divided into multiple virtual interfaces called subinterfaces. A subinterface is simply a logical interface that is directly linked with a physical interface. Therefore, a Frame Relay subinterface can be configured for each of the PVCs coming into a physical serial interface. Using a Frame Relay point-to-point subinterface option was created to avoid split horizon issues. In split horizon routing environments, routing updates received on one subinterface can be sent out another subinterface. In a subinterface configuration, each VC can be configured as a point-to-point connection. This allows each subinterface to act similarly to a leased line. Using a Frame Relay point-to-point subinterface, each pair of the point-to-point routers is on its own subnet.

Frame Relay subinterfaces can be configured in either point-to-point or multipoint mode: i. Point-to-Point A single point-to-point subinterface establishes one PVC connection to another physical interface or subinterface on a remote router placing them in their own subnet and each point-to-point subinterface has a single DLCI. In a point-to-point environment, each subinterface is acting like a point-to-point interface. Typically, there is a separate subnet for each pointto-point VC. Therefore, routing update traffic is not subject to the split horizon rule. ii. Multi-point A single multipoint subinterface establishes multiple PVC links to multiple physical interfaces or subinterfaces on remote routers and are all in the same subnet. The subinterface acts like an NBMA Frame Relay interface, so routing update traffic is subject to the split horizon rule. normally, all multipoint VCs belongs to the same subnet.

Example Topology:

In the topology below, router R1 has two point-to-point subinterfaces. 1. The s0/0.0.102 subinterface connects to R2, and the 2. The s0/0/0.103 subinterface connects to R3. Each subinterface is on a different unique subnet.

How to Configure Frame Relay Subinterface on Cisco router

R1 to R2

R1(config)#interface se0/0/0 R1(config-if)#encapsulation frame-relay R1(config-if)#no shutdown R1(config)#interface se0/0/0.102 point-to-point R1(config-if)#ip address 10.2.1.1 255.255.255.252 R1(config-subif)#frame-relay interface-dlci 102 R1(config-subif)#end R1(config-if)#exit

R1 to R3

R1(config)#interface se0/0/0 R1(config-if)#encapsulation frame-relay R1(config-if)#no shutdown R1(config)#interface se0/0/0.103 point-to-point R1(config-if)#ip address 10.2.1.5 255.255.255.252 R1(config-subif)#frame-relay interface-dlci 103 R1(config-subif)#end

Step to configure Frame Relay subinterfaces on a physical interface: Step 1. Remove any network layer address (IP) assigned to the physical interface. If the physical interface has an address, frames are not received by the local subinterfaces. Step 2. Configure Frame Relay encapsulation on the physical interface using the encapsulation frame-relay command. Step 3. For each of the defined PVCs, create a logical subinterface. Specify the port number, followed by a period (.) and the subinterface number. To make troubleshooting easier, it is suggested that the subinterface number matches the DLCI number. Step 4. Configure an IP address for the interface and set the bandwidth. Step 5. Configure the local DLCI on the subinterface using the frame-relay interface-dlci command.