non-Cisco frame relay setup

[Corpin]

The company I work for just purchased a new T1 connection from UUNET (Worldcom), then went out and bought a router for it. Unfortunately, there was no communication between UUNET and my company as to which router they should get. And seeing as they were trying very hard not to have to spend any money to begin with, they avoided paying the high price for a Cisco router, and went with an Efficient Networks T1 router instead. The router they got does support Frame Relay, but the commands are not exactly the same as those on a Cisco router. The biggest different is, this router does RFC 1490, where-as the Cisco is IETF. I have been pulling my hair out for 3 days trying to figure out how to translate UUNET's Cisco config info into something that will work with our router. One of the biggest obstacles in that UUNET keeps telling me that the T1 uses PPP over Frame Relay. And if that's the case, that would be fine. But everything I have read or learned about PPP says that it uses a username/password authentication method. UUNET says there is no such authentication with their connection. I have all of the IP address/subnet info as well as the DLCI and LMI type. I would think this would be enough, but apparently not. Anyone every trying setting up a Siemens se5940 T1/E1 router? It's made by Efficient Networks as a cost-effective T1 solution.

-Chad

 

[StarTAC]

well, PPP is an alternative to HDLC when using Cisco, as Cisco and every other DTE vendor employs a proprietory version of the HDLC layer 2 protocol.. PPP is non-proprietory, and is recommended between non-Cisco and even Cisco equipment.. however, this is for point-to-point links..

what u need is frame relay.. your DTE should work with UUNET's IETF version of frame relay on their Cisco router.. i have a situation where i am talking to a RedBack DTE using my 3640 router, and i am using IETF...

saying that, PPP doesn't have to be used with authentication on a leased line, although u can implement it...

good luck..

 

[dfusion]

A few things to check..

1) How many channels are active on your frame relay circuit? A full T1 is 24 channels (64k per channel time 24 channels equals 1.544 Mbit). Make sure your CSU is set to the appropriate number of channels to accomodate the bandwidth you have. 4 Channels = 256k, 8 Channels = 512k, and so on.

2) By default Cisco will use HDLC as the encapsulation type but this can be changed to frame relay. HDLC is the default over PPP for point to point links, but has nothing to do with frame relay. With PPP, I believe what they are referring to is a point to point frmae relay connection as opposed to a multipoint frame connection. In Cisco IOS this is "config t -> interfaces0/0 -> encap frame-relay -> interface serial0/0.1 point-to-point".

3) PPP does not require authentication. PPP stands for "Point to Point Protocol". You can't have PPP encapsulation on a frame relay circuit. Either your encapsulation type is Frame Relay or you don't have a frame relay circuit.


You can post the sample config UUNET gave you and I'll check it out.

http://www.markholloway.com

 

[StarTAC]

well, i guess the decision to use a subinterface or the whoel major serial interface for your frame relay connection is up to u.. since your interface configuration is locally significant, whether u use either, the configuration will still work with UUNET...

however, i do advise, for routing protocol and administrative reasons, that u use subinterfaces.. an example configuration for this:

conf t

int s0
encapsulation frame-relay

int s0.1 point-to-point
ip address 1.2.3.4 255.255.255.252
frame-relay lmi-type ansi
frame-relay interface-dlci 100

as u can see, u need to configure the encapsulation on the major interface.. u can't do it on a subinterface...

configure your subinterface and specify your point to point IP address, DLCI and LMI type.. if u are using IOS 11.2 +, then your LMI type will be detected by your router within 60 seconds.. if there's no detection within that time, it LMI type will default to CISCO.. i would just recommend u manually specify it anyway... contact your telco for the correct information...

good luck..