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Frame Relay DLCIs And Mappings
Passing the CCNA is tough, and one of the toughest
parts is keeping all the acronyms straight! Frame Relay has plenty of those, and
today we're going to examine what DLCIs do and how they're mapped on a Cisco
router.
Frame Relay VCs use Data-Link Connection Identifiers (DLCI - pronounced
"del-see") as their addresses. Unlike other Cisco technologies, VCs have only a
single DLCI in their header. They do not have a source and destination.
DLCIs have local significance only. DLCI numbers are not advertised to other
routers, and other routers can use the same DLCI numbers without causing
connectivity issues.
Cisco uses the term global addressing to describe a technique by which a router
in a frame relay network is reached via the same DLCI number from each router in
the network. For example, in a 25-router network, the same DLCI number would be
used to reach �Router A� by each router.
Global Addressing is an organizational tool that does not affect the fact that
DLCIs have local significance only.
The locally significant DLCI must be mapped to the destination router�s IP
address. There are two options for this, Inverse ARP and static mapping.
In both of the following examples, the single physical Serial interface on
Router 1 is configured with two logical connections through the frame relay
cloud, one to Router 2 and one to Router 3.
Inverse ARP runs by default once Frame Relay is enabled, and starts working as
soon as you open the interface. By running show frame-relay map after enabling
Frame Relay, two dynamic mappings are shown on this router. If a dynamic mapping
is shown, Inverse ARP performed it.
R1#show frame map
Serial0 (up): ip 200.1.1.2 dlci 122(0x7A,0x1CA0), dynamic,
broadcast,, status defined, active
Serial0 (up): ip 200.1.1.3 dlci 123(0x7B,0x1CB0), dynamic,
broadcast,, status defined, active
Static mappings require the use of a frame map statement. To use static
mappings, turn Inverse ARP off with the no frame-relay inverse-arp statement,
and configure a frame map statement for each remote destination that maps the
local DLCI to the remote IP address. Frame Relay requires the broadcast keyword
to send broadcasts to the remote device.
R1#conf t
R1(config)#interface serial0
R1(config-if)#no frame-relay inverse-arp
R1(config-if)#frame map ip 200.1.1.2 122 broadcast
R1(config-if)#frame map ip 200.1.1.3 123 broadcast
The syntax of the frame map statement maps the remote IP address to the local
DLCI.
Broadcasts will not be transmitted by default; the broadcast option must be
configured.
R1#show frame map
Serial0 (up): ip 200.1.1.2 dlci 122(0x7A,0x1CA0), static,
broadcast,
CISCO, status defined, active
Serial0 (up): ip 200.1.1.3 dlci 123(0x7B,0x1CB0), static,
broadcast,
CISCO, status defined, active