Frame Ralay

dredlord

Dear All,

Im not sure if this has been asked before can anyone recommend some good frame relay material. I have a rather large gap in my knowledge with regards to this technology and need to tackle it

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

networker050184

Honestly I wouldn't worry about learning it in any depth as its a dying technology. Everything I've learned is just from goggling around and has served me well. No need for buying a dedicated book unless you just want a history lesson!

FloOz

I use a 2610xm with a NM-4A/S to simulate my frame relay cloud in my home lab. Has helped me a good amount in my frame relay understanding

Mrock4

If you want to learn FR, fire up GNS3, configure a basic frame relay cloud (there's plenty of tutorials on this), and play around. Once you've messed with it a bit it's really not too cryptic.

7of9

I feel old considering I've configured frame relay at work. LOL!

Really, the toughest part for most people seems to be wrapping their head around DLCI's and the fact that they are only locally significant. I like to compare them to your gate designation on an airline boarding pass. Once you board the plane, you really don't care anymore which gate you used to get on, but before you get on the plane, that gate is really important. Also, the gate you get off the plane may or may not be the same gate number which you got on it and most likely will be different.

The other important thing about frame relay is understanding how routing works over a frame relay network and issues with split horizon on a multipoint frame relay network.

The new ROUTE exam does not seem to stress frame relay highly beyond understanding routing in a frame relay network, so I don't think you need to spend too much time messing with DLCI's and such. Just my opinion, though. Most providers have moved their subscribers over to MPLS or are eager to do so, so it's doubtful you'll have to configure it at work. If you do, on the subscriber side, the ISP generally gives you all the info you will need.

networker050184

Let me clarify, it's probably still a good idea to learn the router portion of configuration and how routing protocols behave over frame relay. I wouldn't worry about learning about frame relay switching in the backbone and its technologies.