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Frame Relay Interfaces Overview

The Frame Relay protocol allows network designers to reduce costs by using shared facilities that are managed by a Frame Relay service provider. Users pay fixed charges for the local connections from each site in the Frame Relay network to the first point of presence (POP) in which the provider maintains a Frame Relay switch. The portion of the network between the endpoint switches is shared by all the customers of the service provider, and individual data-link connection identifiers (DLCIs) are assigned to ensure each customer receives only their own traffic.

Users contract with their providers for a specific minimum portion of the shared bandwidth Committed Information Rate (CIR) and for a maximum allowable peak rate, Burst Information Rate (BIR). Depending on the terms of the contract, traffic exceeding the CIR can be marked as eligible for discard, in the event of network congestion, or a best effort term can apply up to the BIR rate.

Frame Relay does not require private and permanently connected wide area network facilities, unlike some older WAN protocols.

Frame Relay was developed as a replacement for the older and much slower X.25 protocol. It scales to much higher data rates because it does not require explicit acknowledgment of each frame of data.

You can configure the Frame Relay protocol on SONET/SDH, E1/E3, and T1/T3 physical routing platform interfaces, and on the channelized DS3, channelized OC12, channelized T3 intelligent queuing (IQ), channelized OC12 IQ, and channelized E1 IQ interfaces.

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