Scribd
Upload
4 views

Frame Relay

Network topic

Uploaded by

Pooja Agnihotri
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
4 views

Frame Relay

Network topic

Uploaded by

Pooja Agnihotri
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Frame Relay




Frame Relay is a packet-switching network protocol that is designed
to work at the data link layer of the network. It is used to connect
Local Area Networks (LANs) and transmit data across Wide Area
Networks (WANs). It is a better alternative to a point-to-point
network for connecting multiple nodes that require separate
dedicated links to be established between each pair of nodes. It
allows transmission of different size packets and dynamic bandwidth
allocation. Also, it provides a congestion control mechanism to
reduce the network overheads due to congestion. It does not have
an error control and flow management mechanism.

Frame Relay Network

Working:
Frame relay switches set up virtual circuits to connect multiple LANs
to build a WAN. Frame relay transfers data between LANs across
WAN by dividing the data in packets known as frames and
transmitting these packets across the network. It supports
communication with multiple LANs over the shared physical links or
private lines.
Frame relay network is established between Local Area Networks
(LANs) border devices such as routers and service provider network
that connects all the LAN networks. Each LAN has an access link that
connects routers of LAN to the service provider network terminated
by the frame relay switch. The access link is the private physical link
used for communication with other LAN networks over WAN. The
frame relay switch is responsible for terminating the access link and
providing frame relay services.
For data transmission, LAN’s router (or other border device linked
with access link) sends the data packets over the access link. The
packet sent by LAN is examined by a frame relay switch to get the
Data Link Connection Identifier (DLCI) which indicates the
destination of the packet. Frame relay switch already has the
information about addresses of the LANs connected to the network
hence it identifies the destination LAN by looking at DLCI of the data
packet. DLCI basically identifies the virtual circuit (i.e. logical path
between nodes that doesn’t really exist) between source and
destination network. It configures and transmits the packet to frame
relay switch of destination LAN which in turn transfers the data
packet to destination LAN by sending it over its respective access
link. Hence, in this way, a LAN is connected with multiple other LANs
by sharing a single physical link for data transmission.
Frame relay also deals with congestion within a network. Following
methods are used to identify congestion within a network:
1. Forward Explicit Congestion Network (FECN) –
FECN is a part of the frame header that is used to notify the
destination about the congestion in the network. Whenever
a frame experiences congestion while transmission, the
frame relay switch of the destination network sets the FECN
bit of the packet that allows the destination to identify that
packet has experienced some congestion while
transmission.
2. Backward Explicit Congestion Network (BECN) –
BECN is a part of the frame header that is used to notify the
source about the congestion in the network. Whenever a
frame experiences congestion while transmission, the
destination sends a frame back to the source with a set
BECN bit that allows the source to identify that packet that
was transmitted had experienced some congestion while
reaching out to the destination. Once, source identifies
congestion in the virtual circuit, it slows down to
transmission to avoid network overhead.
3. Discard Eligibility (DE) –
DE is a part of the frame header that is used to indicate the
priority for discarding the packets. If the source is
generating a huge amount of traffic on the certain virtual
network then it can set DE bits of less significant packets to
indicate the high priority for discarding the packets in case
of network overhead. Packets with set DE bits are discarded
before the packets with unset DE bits in case of congestion
within a network.

Types:

1. Permanent Virtual Circuit (PVC) –


These are the permanent connections between frame relay
nodes that exist for long durations. They are always
available for communication even if they are not in use.
These connections are static and do not change with time.
2. Switched Virtual Circuit (SVC) –
These are the temporary connections between frame relay
nodes that exist for the duration for which nodes are
communicating with each other and are closed/ discarded
after the communication. These connections are
dynamically established as per the requirements.

Advantages:

1. High speed
2. Scalable
3. Reduced network congestion
4. Cost-efficient
5. Secured connection

Disadvantages:

1. Lacks error control mechanism


2. Delay in packet transfer
3. Less reliable

You might also like