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1.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
2
3================
4Frame Relay (FR)
5================
6
7Frame Relay (FR) support for linux is built into a two tiered system of device
8drivers.  The upper layer implements RFC1490 FR specification, and uses the
9Data Link Connection Identifier (DLCI) as its hardware address.  Usually these
10are assigned by your network supplier, they give you the number/numbers of
11the Virtual Connections (VC) assigned to you.
12
13Each DLCI is a point-to-point link between your machine and a remote one.
14As such, a separate device is needed to accommodate the routing.  Within the
15net-tools archives is 'dlcicfg'.  This program will communicate with the
16base "DLCI" device, and create new net devices named 'dlci00', 'dlci01'...
17The configuration script will ask you how many DLCIs you need, as well as
18how many DLCIs you want to assign to each Frame Relay Access Device (FRAD).
19
20The DLCI uses a number of function calls to communicate with the FRAD, all
21of which are stored in the FRAD's private data area.  assoc/deassoc,
22activate/deactivate and dlci_config.  The DLCI supplies a receive function
23to the FRAD to accept incoming packets.
24
25With this initial offering, only 1 FRAD driver is available.  With many thanks
26to Sangoma Technologies, David Mandelstam & Gene Kozin, the S502A, S502E &
27S508 are supported.  This driver is currently set up for only FR, but as
28Sangoma makes more firmware modules available, it can be updated to provide
29them as well.
30
31Configuration of the FRAD makes use of another net-tools program, 'fradcfg'.
32This program makes use of a configuration file (which dlcicfg can also read)
33to specify the types of boards to be configured as FRADs, as well as perform
34any board specific configuration.  The Sangoma module of fradcfg loads the
35FR firmware into the card, sets the irq/port/memory information, and provides
36an initial configuration.
37
38Additional FRAD device drivers can be added as hardware is available.
39
40At this time, the dlcicfg and fradcfg programs have not been incorporated into
41the net-tools distribution.  They can be found at ftp.invlogic.com, in
42/pub/linux.  Note that with OS/2 FTPD, you end up in /pub by default, so just
43use 'cd linux'.  v0.10 is for use on pre-2.0.3 and earlier, v0.15 is for
44pre-2.0.4 and later.
45