Cisco vs IETF Frame Relay Encapsulation Types

[furrow.s]

I am currently testing a different brand router that does not support Cisco's Frame Relay Encapsulation. However it will be communicating to a T1 Frame Interface on a Cisco 7507. Here's where my questions comes in: If I change the encapsulation type on this T1 interface from Cisco to IETF will it take down the other 30 + sites that I have communicating via this T1?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[t.baranski]

I believe FR encapsulation is a per-interface setting. So if your other sites are all subinterfaces of the serial interface that the non-Cisco router will connect to, then you'll effectively be changing the encapsulation for all sites.

[pkhatri]

The encapsulation type can be specified either on the main serial interface or the point-to-point sub-interfaces (if they exist). To change it on the main interface, do the following:

interface serial xx/yy

encapsulation frame-relay ietf

That change will then apply to any PVCs on the interface. Cisco recommends that you shut/no shut the interface after changing this.

However, you can also specify the encapsulation type on a per-sub-interface basis, as follows:

interface serial xx/yy.zz point-to-point

frame-relay interface-dlci 16 ietf

Therefore, if you have point-to-point interfaces, you can selectively apply the setting to different PVCs without compromising any other PVCs.

HTH,

Paresh.