I have an existing frame-cloud. We ordered a second frame cloud to do some

load balancing and/or redundancy. The second frame cloud is terminated into a different router. We are currently using OSPF for routing. My question is what is the best way to incorporate this second frame cloud. Should I include this cloud into the existing's cloud's area? How do I load balance between the two clouds?

thnx

Is the second cloud terminating on either ends on different routers ??

That is Rtr A - service provider 1 - Rtr B and

also Rtr C - service provider 2 - Rtr D

OR

Rtr A - service provider 1 - Rtr B

RtrA - service provider 2 - Rtr C

Just to know the topology.

The first option, seperate clouds, separtate routes. Rtr A and Rtr C are connected to same cat5500 switch. Rtr B & Rtr D connected to same cat4006 switch. Rtr A and RtrC are doing HSRP. RtrC is the active.

I think your best bet in this case would be to configure

1. the remote lan segment (where routers B and D are present) to be in area 0.

2. Put the two frame-relay clouds in area 1

3. and the lan segment (where routers A and C are present ) to be in area 2.

You will need to configure two virtual links one via router C to router D and one via router A to router B.

Also while configuring HSRP, both C and A should be enabled with HSRP interface tracking. C would be tracking its serial interface, and normally C would be passing all traffic (since C is active router). When the frame cloud at C fails, or router C fails, router A becomes active, also virtual link via C to D will become down, and OSPF will now converge via the virtual link from A to B. This way you can achieve redundancy and failover.

Hope that helps!