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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
30 views20 pages

4 Chapter Four - 2

Uploaded by

Habtamu Alemu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chapter Four: Routers

A router is hardware device designed to receive, analyze and move incoming packets to another
network. It may also be used to convert the packets to another network interface, drop them, and
perform other actions relating to a network.
A router has a lot more capabilities than other network devices. By contrast, routers can analyze
the data being sent over a network, change how it is packaged, and send it to another network or
over a different network.
Router basic configuration:
Routing is used to take a packet from one device and sending it through the network to another
device on a different network. Routers don’t care about hosts rather they care about networks and
the best path to each one of them. The logical network address (IP address) of the destination
host is used to get packets through a routed network. The hardware address of the host is used to
deliver the packet from a router to the correct destination host.
Router’s job is to route traffic to all the networks in your internetwork. Things that a given router
needs to know to route a given packet: -
 Destination address
 Neighbor routers from which it can learn about remote networks
 Possible routes to all remote networks
 The best route to each remote network
 How to maintain and verify routing information
The router builds a routing table, which is a map of the internetwork. It describes how to find
remote networks. If the network is directly connected, it already knows how to get to it but if the
network isn’t directly connected to the router, the router must use one of two ways to learn how
to get to the remote network. These are Static Routing and Dynamic Routing.
In static routing method it needs to type all network locations into the routing table, which can
be a pretty boring task.
In dynamic routing method, a protocol on one router communicates with the same protocol
running on neighboring routers. The routers then update each other about all the networks they
know about and place this information into the routing table.

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Static routing
Static routing is the process in which when you need to manually enter routes in each router’s
routing table.
The advantage of Static Routing:
 There is no overhead on the router CPU
 There is no bandwidth usage between routers
 It is more secured since the administrator can allow routing access to certain networks only.
The disadvantage of Static Routing:
 The administrator must have a good understanding of internetwork and how each router is
connected in order to route correctly.
 If the administrator doesn’t have good and accurate map of the internetwork, things will get
very messy.
 When one network is added, a route has to tediously be added to it and on all routers by
hand, which becomes impractical as the network grows.
 It’s not feasible to use it in most large networks since maintaining it would be tedious.
Command syntax used to add a static route to a routing table:
wkuRouter(config)#ip route [Destination_network] [Subnet_mask] [Next-hop_address or
exit_interface] [administrative_distance]
 IP route - The command used to create the static route.
 Destination_network - The network you are placing in the routing table.
 Mask - The subnet mask of the network.
 Next-hop_address - This is the IP address of the next-hop router that will receive packets
and forward them to the remote network.
 Exit_interface - Used in place of the next-hop address if you want, and shows up as a
directly connected route.
 Administrative_distance (AD) - Used to measure the trustworthiness of routing
information received on a router from a neighbor router. An administrative distance is an
integer from 0 to 255, where 0 is the most trusted and 255 means no traffic will be passed
via this route. Static routes have an administrative distance of 1 or 0 if you use an exit
interface instead of a next-hop address.

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Example -1:
wkuRouter(config)#ip route 10.194.6.0 255.255.255.0 10.10.10.2
 ip route – Static Routing command.
 10.194.6.0 - The remote network we want to send packets to.
 255.255.255.0 - The mask of the remote network.
 10.10.10.2 - The next hop, or router, that packets will be sent to.
Example - 2:
wkuRouter(config)#ip route 192.168.64.0 255.255.192.0 172.16.10.3 150
 ip route – Static Routing command.
 192.168.64.0 - The remote network we want to send packets to.
 255.255.192.0 - The mask of the remote network.
 172.16.10.3 - The next hop, or router, that packets will be sent to.
 150 – Administrative distance
Example - 3:
wkuRouter(config)#ip route 172.16.3.0 255.255.255.0 s0/0/0
 ip route – Static Routing command.
 172.16.3.0 - The remote network we want to send packets to.

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 255.255.255.0 - The mask of the remote network.
 s0/0/0 - The exit interface of the router.
To see the routing table run the following command
wkuRouter#show IP route
Administrative Distance
Symbol Acronym Description
(AD)
L local network (Interface)
C Directly connected network 0
S Static route 1
E EGP Exterior Gateway Protocol 90
O OSPF Open Shortest Path First protocol 110
R RIP Routing Internet Protocol. 120
Default Routing (Gateway of last resort)
This default route is used by IP to forward any packet whose destination is not found in the
routing table.
A stub router indicates that the networks have only one way out to reach all other networks,
which means that instead of creating multiple static routes, we can just use a single default route.
wkuRouter#ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 10.10.10.2
 Everything the router receives with a destination not found in the routing table will be
forwarded to 10.10.10.2 (Default route).
Dynamic routing:
 In dynamic routing method, a protocol on one router communicates with the same
protocol running on neighboring routers. The routers then update each other about all the
networks they know about and place this information into the routing table.
 If a change occurs in the network, the dynamic routing protocols automatically inform all
routers about the event
 This is easier than using static or default routing, but it will cost more router CPU
processing and network bandwidth.

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Routing protocols
Two types of routing protocols are used in internetworks: interior gateway protocols (IGPs) and
exterior gateway protocols (EGPs).
IGPs are used to exchange routing information with routers in the same autonomous system (AS).
An AS is either a single network or a collection of networks under a common administrative
domain, which basically means that all routers sharing the same routing table information are in
the same AS. EGPs are used to communicate between ASs. An example of an EGP is Border
Gateway Protocol (BGP).
There are three classes of routing protocols:
Distance Vector - Finds the best path to a remote network by judging distance. In RIP routing,
each instance where a packet goes through a router is called a hop, and the route with the least
number of hops to the network will be chosen as the best one. The vector indicates the direction
to the remote network. RIP is a distance-vector routing protocol and periodically sends out the
entire routing table to directly connected neighbors.
Link State - Also called shortest-path-first (SPF) protocols. Each router creates three separate
tables. One table keeps track of directly attached neighbors, the other determines the topology of
the entire internetwork, and the third one is used as the routing table. Link-state routers know
more about the internetwork than any distance-vector routing protocol.
Link state routing tables are not exchanged periodically. Instead, triggered updates containing
only specific link-state information are sent. Periodic information that is small and efficient, in
the form of hello messages, is exchanged between directly connected neighbors to establish and
maintain neighbor relationships.
Advanced distance vector - Uses aspects of both distance-vector and link-state protocols. Uses
a Hello protocol to discover neighbors and form neighbor relationships. It is still based on the
key distance-vector routing protocol principle that information about the rest of the network is
learned from directly connected neighbors.
Routing Information Protocol (RI P)
RIP is a true distance-vector routing protocol. It sends the complete routing table out of all active
interfaces every 30 seconds. It relies on hop count to determine the best way to a remote
network. The maximum allowable hop count in RIP is 15 by default which means destination of
16 would be unreachable.

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RIP works in very small networks, but it’s super inefficient on large networks with slow WAN
links, on networks with a large number of routers installed and completely useless on networks
that have links with variable bandwidths.
 RIP version 1 uses only classful routing - All devices in the network must use the same
subnet mask.
 RIP version 2 uses classless routing - Provides prefix routing and sends subnet mask
information with its route updates.

Figure: Sample Network for RIP Routing

RIP Configuration:
gubryeCampus:
Enable the RIP routing protocol
gubryeCampus(config)#router rip
Added directly connected networks
gubryeCampus(config-router)#network 192.168.0.0
gubryeCampus(config-router)#network 10.10.194.0

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gubryeCampus(config-router)#network 172.16.40.0
Make sure to run only RIPv2, which is a classless routing protocol
gubryeCampus(config-router)#version 2
Disable auto-summary, which allows them to advertise subnets
gubryeCampus(config-router)#no auto-summary
wolkiteCampus:
wolkiteCampus(config)#router rip
wolkiteCampus(config-router)#network 192.168.0.0
wolkiteCampus(config-router)#network 10.10.160.0
wolkiteCampus(config-router)#network 172.16.30.0
wolkiteCampus(config-router)#version 2
wolkiteCampus(config-router)#no auto-summary
butajiraCampus:
butajiraCampus(config)#router rip
butajiraCampus(config-router)#network 172.16.30.0
butajiraCampus(config-router)#network 172.16.40.0
butajiraCampus(config-router)#network 10.10.150.0
butajiraCampus(config-router)#version 2
butajiraCampus(config-router)#no auto-summary
Interior Gateway Protocol (IGRP) / Enhanced IGRP (EIGRP)
EIGRP (Enhanced IGRP) is a classless, distance-vector protocol that uses the concept of an
autonomous system to describe a set of contiguous routers that run the same routing protocol and
share routing information (The range of values we can use to create an AS with EIGRP is 1–
65535). Unlike RIP, it includes the subnet mask in its route updates which enables us to use
VLSM and permits summarization to be included within the design of EIGRP networks.
EIGRP has characteristics of both distance-vector and some link-state protocols.
 It doesn’t send link-state packets like OSPF does; but it sends traditional distance-vector
updates.
 It has link-state characteristics as well—it synchronizes network topology
information between neighbors at startup and then sends specific updates only
when topology changes occur.

7
 It has a default hop count of 100, with a maximum of 255. Hop count in EIGRP shows
how many routers an EIGRP route update packet can go through before it will be
discarded, which limits the size of the autonomous system (AS).
Configuring EIGRP:
There are two modes for entering EIGRP commands: router configuration mode and interface
configuration mode.
 In router configuration mode - enable the protocol, determine which networks will run
EIGRP, and set global factors.
 In interface configuration mode - customize summaries and bandwidth.
To initiate an EIGRP session, use the router eigrp command followed by our network’s AS
number. After that, enter the specific numbers of the networks that we want to connect to the
router using the network command followed by the network number.
Example:
gubryeCampus:
Enable the EIGRP routing protocol with an autonomous number of 40.
gubryeCampus(config)#router eigrp 40
gubryeCampus(config-router)#network 192.168.0.0 0.0.0.63
gubryeCampus(config-router)#network 10.10.194.0 0.0.0.31
gubryeCampus(config-router)#network 172.16.40.0 0.0.0.255
gubryeCampus(config-router)#no auto-summary
Unless you have tens of thousands of networks worldwide, then there is really no need to use
wildcards because they don’t provide any other administrative purpose. Therefore, we can
configure EIGRP without wildcard masks as shown below.
wolkiteCampus:
wolkiteCampus(config)#router eigrp 40
wolkiteCampus(config-router)#network 192.168.0.0
wolkiteCampus(config-router)#network 10.10.160.0
wolkiteCampus(config-router)#network 172.16.30.0
wolkiteCampus(config-router)#no auto-summary
butajiraCampus:
butajiraCampus(config)#router eigrp 40

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butajiraCampus(config-router)#network 172.16.30.0
butajiraCampus(config-router)#network 172.16.40.0
butajiraCampus(config-router)#network 10.10.150.0
butajiraCampus(config-router)#no auto-summary
Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)
OSPF is an open standard routing protocol that’s been implemented by a wide variety of network
vendors. OSPF is flexible and popular because of its open standard characteristics.
OSPF’s convergence time is fast. Another two great advantages OSPF offers are:-
 It supports multiple, equal-cost routes to the same destination
 Like EIGRP, it also supports both IP and IPv6 routed protocols.
In general:
 Allows for the creation of areas and autonomous systems
 Minimizes routing update traffic
 Is highly flexible, versatile, and scalable
 Supports VLSM/CIDR (Variable Length Subnet Masking/ Classless Inter-Domain Routing)
 Offers an unlimited hop count
 Is open standard and supports multi-vendor deployment
Configuring OSPF:
Single-area OSPF configuration:
The easiest and also least scalable way to configure OSPF is to just use a single area. Doing this
requires a minimum of two commands.
1. The first command used to activate/enable the OSPF routing process is as follows:
wkuRouter(config)#router ospf 2
The number is a value in the range from 1 to 65,535 that identifies the OSPF process ID which is
needed to identify a unique instance of an OSPF database and is locally significant.
Different OSPF routers don’t have to use the same process ID to communicate. More than one
OSPF process can run simultaneously on the same router but, they will maintain an entirely
separate copy of their topology table and manage their communications independently.
2. The second command identifies the interfaces you want to activate OSPF on as well as
the area in which it resides using the network command.
wkuRouter(config-router)#network 172.16.40.0 0.0.0.255 area 0

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The areas can be any number from 0 to 4.2 billion, which is quite different from the process ID,
which ranges from 1 to 65,535. OSPF routers will become neighbors only if their interfaces
share a network that’s configured to belong to the same area number.
The format of the area number is either a decimal value from the range 0 to 4,294,967,295 or a
value represented in standard dotted-decimal notation. For example, area 0.0.0.0 is a legitimate
area and is identical to area 0.
Example: To configure the network shown below with OSPF

Figure: Sample Network for OSPF Routing


gubryeCampus:
The command below is always important to verify exactly what you are directly connected to.
gubryeCampus(config)#show ip int brief
Enable the OSPF routing protocol with a process ID of 2.
gubryeCampus(config)#router ospf 2
gubryeCampus(config-router)#network 192.168.0.0 0.0.0.63 area 0
gubryeCampus(config-router)#network 10.10.194.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
gubryeCampus(config-router)#network 172.16.40.0 0.0.0. 31 area 0

10
wolkiteCampus:
The command below is always important to verify exactly what you are directly connected to.
wolkiteCampus(config)#show ip int brief
wolkiteCampus(config)#router ospf 2
wolkiteCampus(config-router)#network 192.168.0.0 0.0.0.63 area 0
wolkiteCampus(config-router)#network 10.10.160.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
wolkiteCampus(config-router)#network 172.16.30.0 0.0.0.15 area 0
butajiraCampus:
The command below is always important to verify exactly what you are directly connected to.
butajiraCampus(config)#show ip int brief
butajiraCampus(config)#router ospf 2
butajiraCampus(config-router)#network 172.16.30.0 0.0.0.15 area 0
butajiraCampus(config-router)#network 172.16.40.0 0.0.0.31 area 0
butajiraCampus(config-router)#network 10.10.150.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
The Gubrye Campus router is connected to the Internet off of S0/0/0. Therefore, we’ll create a
default route towards this Internet and then tell the other routers that this is the route they’ll use
to get to the Internet.
gubryeCampus #config t
gubryeCampus (config)#ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 S0/0/0
gubryeCampus (config)#router ospf 2
gubryeCampus (config-router)#default-information originate
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)
The DHCP enables clients on a network to dynamically obtain IP addresses and other
information from a DHCP server when it connects to the network. It automates the assignment of
IP addresses, subnet masks, gateway, and other IP networking parameters.
The DHCP server is contacted by sending a request, and an IP address is requested. The DHCP
server chooses an address from a configured range of addresses called a pool and assigns it to the
host client for a set period (lease time).
When a DHCP enabled client device boots up or connects to the network, the client broadcasts a
DHCP DISCOVER packet to identify any available DHCP servers on the network. A DHCP

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server replies with a DHCP OFFER, which is a lease offer message with an assigned IP address,
subnet mask, DNS server, and default gateway information as well as the duration of the lease.
DHCP-distributed addresses are not permanently assigned to hosts but are only leased for a
period of time. If the host is powered down or taken off the network, the address is returned to
the pool for reuse.
DHCP Configuration on Wolkite campus router:
Exclude addresses which should not be included in the dhcp pool
wolkiteCampus(config)#ip dhcp excluded-address 10.10.194.1 10.10.194.50
wolkiteCampus(config)#ip dhcp pool wku
wolkiteCampus(dhcp-config)#network 10.10.194.0 255.255.255.0
wolkiteCampus(dhcp-config)#dns-server 10.10.194.1
wolkiteCampus(dhcp-config)#default-router 10.10.194.1
Network Address Translation (NAT) and Port Address Translation (PAT)
Network Address Translation (NAT) is used to slow the depletion of available IP address space
by allowing multiple private IP addresses to be represented by a much smaller number of public
IP addresses.
It is also a useful tool for network migrations and mergers, server load sharing, and creating
“virtual servers”.
NAT decreases the overwhelming amount of public IP addresses required in a networking
environment, so that two companies can have duplicate internal addressing schemes. NAT is also
a great tool to use when an organization changes its Internet service provider (ISP) but the
networking manager needs to avoid the difficulty of changing the internal address scheme.
Generally, NAT is important when:-
 When you need to connect to the Internet while the hosts don’t have public IP addresses.
 When you’ve changed to a new ISP that requires you to change the IP of your network.
 When you need to merge two intranets with duplicate addresses.
Types of Network Address Translation
There are three types of NATs. These are:-
Static NAT (one-to-one): this type of NAT is designed to allow one-to-one mapping between
local and global addresses. It requires one Internet IP address for every host on your network.

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Dynamic NAT (many-to-many): Used to map an unregistered IP address to a registered IP
address from out of a pool of registered IP addresses.
Overloading (one-to-many): This is the most popular type of NAT configuration. Understand
that overloading really is a form of dynamic NAT that maps multiple unregistered IP addresses
to a single registered IP address (many-to-one) by using different source ports. It’s also known as
Port Address Translation (PAT), which is also commonly referred to as NAT Overload. Using
PAT allows you to permit thousands of users to connect to the Internet using only one real global
IP address. NAT Overload is the real reason we haven’t run out of valid IP addresses on the
Internet.
NAT Names:
 Inside local - Source host inside address before translation.
 Outside local - Address of an outside host as it appears to the inside network. This is
usually the address of the router interface connected to ISP—the actual Internet address.
 Inside global - Source host address used after translation to get onto the Internet. This is
also the actual Internet address.
 Outside global - Address of outside destination host and, again, the real Internet address.
How NAT is working?
In the table shown below, we can see hosts, on the left, sending an Internet-bound packet to the
routers, on the right side, configured with NAT. The router identifies the source IP address as an
inside local IP address destined for an outside network, translates the source IP address in the
packet, and documents the translation in the NAT table.
Packets are sent to the outside interface with the new translated source address. External hosts
return the packet to the destination hosts and the NAT router translates the inside global IP
address back to the inside local IP address using the NAT table.
With PAT, all inside hosts get translated to one single IP address, hence the term overloading.

Simple NAT Table NAT Table Overloading (PAT)

Inside Local Inside Global Inside Local Inside Global

10.10. 194.1 202.10.2.1 10.10. 194.1:1030 202.10.2.1:1030

10.10.160.1 202.10.4.1 10.10.160.1:1031 202.10.2.1:1031

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10.10.150.1 202.10.6.2 10.10.150.1:1032 202.10.2.1:1032

172.16.30.1 202.10.8.2 172.16.30.1:1033 202.10.2.1:1033

172.16.40.1 202.10.10.1 172.16.40.1:1034 202.10.2.1:1034

NAT Configuration:

Static NAT Configuration:


First, configure a static translation between the inside local IP address 10.10.194.1 and the
outside global IP address 202.10.2.1.
gubryeCampus(config)#ip nat inside source static 10.10.194.1 202.10.2.1
Next, identify interfaces as the inside interface and the outside interfaces.
gubryeCampus(config)#interface gigabitEthernet 0/0
gubryeCampus(config-if)#ip nat inside
gubryeCampus(config)# interface S0/0/0
gubryeCampus(config-if)# ip nat outside

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Dynamic NAT Configuration
Dynamic NAT means we have a pool of addresses that we’ll use to provide real IP addresses to a
group of users on the inside. Because we don’t use port numbers, we must have real IP addresses
for every user who’s trying to get outside the local network simultaneously.
 Create an access list that select or designate interesting traffic. When interesting traffic has
been matched with the access list, it’s pulled into the NAT process to be translated.
gubryeCampus(config)#access-list 10 permit 10.10.194.0 0.0.0.255
 Create a pool of addresses that will be distributed to the specific hosts that require global
addresses.
gubryeCampus(config)#ip nat pool wku 202.10.2.1 202.10.2.254 netmask 255.255.255.0
 Tell the router to translate IP addresses that match access-list 10 to an address found in the IP
NAT pool named wku.
gubryeCampus(config)#ip nat inside source list 10 pool wku
gubryeCampus(config)#interface gigabitEthernet 0/0
gubryeCampus(config-if)#ip nat inside
gubryeCampus(config)#interface S0/0/0
gubryeCampus(config-if)#ip nat outside
PAT (Overloading) Configuration
This is the typical form of NAT that we would use today. It’s actually now rare to use static or
dynamic NAT unless it is for something like statically mapping a server. PAT will overload one
public/global IP to many local/private ip addresses.
Example:
gubryeCampus(config)#access-list 10 permit 10.10.194.0 0.0.0.255
gubryeCampus(config)#ip nat pool wku 202.10.2.1 202.10.2.1 netmask 255.255.255.0
gubryeCampus(config)#ip nat inside source list 10 pool wku overload
gubryeCampus(config)#interface gigabitEthernet 0/0
gubryeCampus(config-if)#ip nat inside
gubryeCampus(config)#interface S0/0/0
gubryeCampus(config-if)#ip nat outside

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Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP)
PPP is a Data Link layer protocol that can be used over either asynchronous serial (dial-up) or
synchronous serial media. It relies on Link Control Protocol (LCP) to build and maintain data-
link connections. Network Control Protocol (NCP) enables multiple Network layer protocols
(routed protocols) to be used on a point-to-point connection.
The basic purpose of PPP is to transport layer 3 packets across a Data Link layer point-to-point
link, and it’s nonproprietary. In addition, since PPP can encapsulate several layer 3 routed
protocols and provide authentication, dynamic addressing, and callback, PPP could actually be
the best encapsulation solution.
PPP contains four main components:
 EIA/TIA-232-C, V.24, V.35, and ISDN - A Physical layer international standard for
serial communication.
 HDLC - A method for encapsulating datagrams over serial links.
 LCP - A method of establishing, configuring, maintaining, and terminating the point-to-
point connection. It also provides features such as authentication.
 NCP - Is a method of establishing and configuring different Network layer protocols for
transport across the PPP link. NCP is designed to allow the simultaneous use of multiple
Network layer protocols like Internet Protocol Control Protocol (IPCP).

There are three phases of session establishment when PPP connections are started. These are:-
 Link-establishment phase - LCP packets are sent by each PPP device to configure and
test the link. These packets contain a field called Configuration Option that allows each
device to see the size of the data, the compression, and authentication.

16
 Authentication phase - Either CHAP or PAP can be used to authenticate a link.
Authentication takes place before Network layer protocol information is read.
 Network layer protocol phase - PPP uses the Network Control Protocol (NCP) to allow
multiple Network layer protocols to be encapsulated and sent over a PPP data link.
PPP Authentication Methods
There are two methods of authentication that can be used with PPP links:
Password Authentication Protocol (PAP) - Is the less secure of the two methods. Passwords
are sent in clear text and PAP is performed only upon the initial link establishment. When the
PPP link is first established, the remote node sends the username and password back to the
originating target router until authentication is acknowledged.
Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) - Is used at the initial startup of a link
and at periodic checkups on the link to ensure that the router is still communicating with the
same host. That means, CHAP authenticates at the beginning of the session and periodically
throughout the session.
Configuring PPP
gubryeCampus(config)#config t
gubryeCampus(config)#int S0/0/0
gubryeCampus(config-if)#encapsulation ppp
PPP encapsulation has to be enabled on both interfaces connected to a serial line in order to
work.
After configuring the serial interface to support PPP encapsulation, then configure authentication
using PPP between routers.
Set the hostname of the router
gubryeCampus(config)# hostname wku
wku(config)#
Then, Set the username and password for the remote router that will be connecting to your
router.
wku(config)# username teleRouter password cisco
 Username is the hostname of the remote router that’s connecting to your router.
 The password on both routers must be the same.
 Username and password must be configured for each remote system.

17
Choose either CHAP or PAP as the authentication method
wku(config)#interface s0/0/0
wku(config-if)#ppp authentication chap pap
 The second method acts as a backup just in case the first method fails.
Frame Relay
Frame Relay is a packet-switched technology and is one of the most popular WAN services
deployed over the past decade. It is classified as a non-broadcast multi-access (NBMA) network,
meaning it doesn’t send any broadcasts such as RIP updates across the network. It’s substantially
more complex than the simple leased-line networks. The leased-line networks are easy to
conceptualize - but not so much when it comes to Frame Relay. It is significantly more complex
and versatile, which is why it’s often represented as a “cloud” in networking graphics.
If you had to add many remote sites accessed from one corporate office and had only one free
serial port on your router, it’s Frame Relay to the rescue! But you will have a single point of
failure, which is not so good. But Frame Relay is used to save money, not to make a network
more resilient.

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Frame Relay Encapsulation Types:
When configuring Frame Relay on Cisco routers, you need to specify it as an encapsulation on
serial interfaces. One can’t use HDLC or PPP with Frame Relay. When configuring Frame
Relay, specify an encapsulation of Frame Relay.
There are two encapsulation types: Cisco and IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). Cisco is
default encapsulation unless you manually type in ietf.
 Cisco is used when connecting two Cisco devices.
 IETF-type encapsulation is needed to connect a Cisco device to a non-Cisco device with
Frame Relay.
 Make sure Frame Relay encapsulation is the same on both ends.
Virtual Circuits
Frame Relay operates using virtual circuits as opposed to the actual circuits that leased lines use.
These virtual circuits link the thousands of devices connected to the provider’s “cloud” together.
Frame Relay provides a virtual circuit between two DTE devices, making them appear to be
connected via a circuit while they’re connected a large, shared infrastructure.
There are two types of virtual circuits - permanent and switched.
 Permanent virtual circuits (PVCs) – It creates the mappings and as long as you pay the
bill, they’ll remain in place.
 Switched virtual circuits (SVCs) - The virtual circuit is established during data
transmission, and then it’s taken down when the data transfer is complete.
Data Link Connection Identifiers (DLCIs):
Frame Relay PVCs are identified to DTE end devices by Data Link Connection Identifiers
(DLCIs).
A Frame Relay service provider typically assigns DLCI values, which are used on Frame Relay
interfaces to distinguish between different virtual circuits. Because many virtual circuits can be
terminated on one multipoint Frame Relay interface, many DLCIs are often joined with it.
It runs on a Frame Relay router and maps the DLCI to an IP address for Frame Relay so it
knows how to get to the IP address at the other end of the PVC. IP-to-DLCI mappings can be
seen with the show frame-relay map command.
CorporateR(config)#interface s0/0/0
CorporateR(config-if)#encapsulation frame-relay cisco

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CorporateR(config-if)#frame-relay lmi-type ansi
CorporateR(config-if)#frame-relay interface-dlci 16
Router on the stick (Will be covered under Chapter 5)
Router on a stick (ROAS): Is a means in which instead of using a router interface for each
VLAN, one can use one of the interfaces and run ISL or 802.1q trunking. This allows all VLANs
to communicate through one interface. Therefore, a single router interface can connect all
VLANs together for inter-VLAN communication.

Fig.: Router On stick.

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