Frame relay in real world

[Bhavesh30]

i am new to the frame relay and want to know the concept of it in real world.

in real world lets say there is the corporate office (Corp) and 4 sales offices.

now if i have to connect this using frame relay what would be required?

i signup for frame relay service with an isp.

T1 from ISP.

i know when you get T1 they(ISP CO) run a cable that connects to a T1 circuit (in the server closet) which has a ethernet jack that i would connect to a T1 router. and from there it would goto switch and client hosts.

so what happnes with frame relay? (service provider to Corp location server closet)

how many routers would i need at the Corp office?

Does the isp provide frame relay switch? where does it sit? my location or at ISP?

how about the connections at the 4 sales offices? how do the ISP go about connecting them?

lets say isp ABC is the provider at central office in NY.

2 locations in FL & CA. 1 in London and 1 in China. how does that work? would the same ISP be able to provide this service to all locations? do i signup with different providers?

[Ganesh Hariharan]

i am new to the frame relay and want to know the concept of it in real world. 
in real world lets say there is the corporate office (Corp) and 4 sales offices.
now if i have to connect this using frame relay what would be required? 
i signup for frame relay service with an isp.
T1 from ISP.
i
know when you get T1 they(ISP CO) run a cable that connects to a T1
circuit (in the server closet) which has a ethernet jack that i would
connect to a T1 router. and from there it would goto switch and client
hosts.
so what happnes with frame relay? (service provider to Corp location server closet) 
how many routers would i need at the Corp office?
Does the isp provide frame relay switch? where does it sit? my location or at ISP?
how about the connections at the 4 sales offices? how do the ISP go about connecting them?
lets say isp ABC is the provider at central office in NY.
2
locations in FL & CA. 1 in London and 1 in China. how does that
work? would the same ISP be able to provide this service to all
locations? do i signup with different providers? 

Hi Bavesh,

As per the defination of frame relay it is a standardized wide area networking technology that specifies the physical and logical link layers of digital telecommunications channels using a packet switching methodology.Network providers commonly implement Frame Relay for voice (VoFR) and data as an encapsulation technique, used between local area networks (LANs) over a wide area network (WAN). Each end-user gets a private line (or leased line) to a frame-relay node. The frame-relay network handles the transmission over a frequently-changing path transparent to all end-users.

And for your question Frame relay switches sits at ISP ends from all the sites you need to have access link to your ISP which is providing a frame relay services for your organisation.

Check out the below links on frame relay hope that helps !!

http://www.ciscopress.com/articles/article.asp?p=170741&seqNum=7

http://www.ciscopress.com/articles/article.asp?p=170741

Remember to rate the helpful post

Ganesh.H

[Jon Marshall · Accepted solution]

Bavesh

At your head office you would need one router only. You can use subinterfaces on the same physical port, one for each remote site. The frame-relay switch sits in the ISP network, you don't need to worry about that.

ISP will provide a single connection to each office. If they have the coverage they will provide connections at all geogrpahical sites. If they don't ie. the sites are spread across the world then frame-relay might well not be the best choice ie. you could use DSL internet connections and use site-to-site VPNs to protect the traffic.

Jon

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[Bhavesh30]

thanks jon for the input for this.

one more thing.

so lets say i set up frame relay for all my locations (considering the ISP providing FR servics to all the locations) now if i have a new location in India and lets say they dont have FR services there. can i setup VPN for the office in India and keep the FR service working for the other locations?

also as Ganesh mentioned the FR used as VoIP.

so is it best to use FR only for voice? or can it be both data & voice? like T1.

[Jon Marshall]

Bhavesh30 wrote:
thanks jon for the input for this.
one more thing.
so lets say i set up frame relay for all my locations (considering the ISP providing FR servics to all the locations) now if i have a new location in India and lets say they dont have FR services there. can i setup VPN for the office in India and keep the FR service working for the other locations?
also as Ganesh mentioned the FR used as VoIP. 
so is it best to use FR only for voice? or can it be both data & voice? like T1.

Bhavesh

Yes you could use a VPN for the office in India and keep FR for other locations. Obviously you would need an Internet connection at your main site to terminate the other end of the VPN.

FR can and is used for both VOIP and data.

Jon

[Tharak Abraham]

Some more add ons which might help:-

FR is an NBMA network without native broadcast support.

Layer 3 resolution is needed to bind remote layer 2 to layer 3 and hence the use of DLCI (like MAC for Ethernet)

Resolution can occur either statically or dynamically (inverse arp)

Supports multipoint and point-to-point, wherein multipoint requires mapping and pt-to-pt does not !

Coming to your questions:-

>>how many routers would i need at the Corp office?

Just one !

>>Does the isp provide frame relay switch? where does it sit? my location or at ISP?

We dont need FR switches, SP will take care of transferring data and the switches will be placed in their network.

>>how about the connections at the 4 sales offices? how do the ISP go about connecting them?

lets say isp ABC is the provider at central office in NY.

2 locations in FL & CA. 1 in London and 1 in China. how does that work? would the same ISP be able to provide this service to all locations? do i signup with different providers?

Provider "hand-offs" do happen like Sprint to At&T to C&W

Yes, you may need to sign up with multiple providers if the branch offices are widely located as you mentioned !