Frame Relay Books

"Frame Relay: Technology and Practice" is an excellent resource for network managers, designers, engineers, & support staff. Jeff Buckwalter provides valuable insights into frame relay technology fundamentals, network design, and evaluating frame relay service providers. The concepts presented improve the reader's ability to design, implement, and support a frame relay networking infrastructure.

I was lucky enough to review this book for the publisher and it is packed with must have information. It is an excellent resource for learning about Frame Relay as well as a reference book I will be turning to on a regular basis. I found the format easy to read and the tables invaluable for comparing and reinforcing the information in the text.

This book is extremely well written and does a great job of explaining the various aspects of Frame Relay. Jeff Buckwalter does an excellent job of explaining these concepts to readers who are either new to Frame Relay or have quite a lot of experience with it.

As someone who has configured a few Frame Relay networks, I found this book a wonderful source of information! Great illustrations!

I have some background in WAN knowledge and I want to learn Frame Relay. Among 3 books I have, this one is the best one. Easy to make progress and easy to understand by exmaples. Do not need to look for what a "LMI" means because it always comes with full words "Local Management Interface". It is very useful for the starters to make progress at first. Very well organized.

If you are a newbie trying to break your way into the world of Frame Relay, this book is a must have. (I have LAN experience, but not WAN experience) Plenty of illustrations and analogies to help understand the concepts. This book was a pleasuer to read. I cant say that for most technical books...

This book covers all the protocols and schemes for delivering voice and data over IP, frame relay, and ATM. The author has an easy-to-follow writing style that makes the book a joy to read.

This book really brings together every aspect of converged network architecture in one place. From voice communication networks to data networks to voice packet processing to a softswitch model for IP, this book has it all.

If you read Ibe's ATM book and like it get ready because you are going to LOVE this book even more. Dr.IBE knows his staff.

If you are a technical person this book will became your bible. If you are not a technical person this book will make you feel as if you were technical but most important will help you understand the subject in not time. (SALES, Managers, QA... Guys take note).

I do not know how he does it but a difficult subjects become clear after he explains them. I been following his writing and I must say that there is no one in my opinion who can explain complicated subjects the way he does. Check his ATM book and you will understand what I mean.

WELL DONE IBE...

This is a great book that goes beyond VoIP. It covers all major network architectures, and the latest enabling protocols like SIP, H.323, MPLS, and H.248. I found the discussions of Voice packet processing and Access schemes particularly helpful.

This is a good book for those who wants to know more about voice over Frame Relay. It provides the necessary background for beginners.

This is a great book covering all the basics of Voice, Voice Networks, Voice Encoding, and then leading into Voice over Frame Relay. It also has the Voice Over Frame Relay Implementation Agreement from the Frame Relay Forum. Once you read the book, the technical jargon in the FRF IA actually make some sense.

William Flanagan is on my list of authors to buy.

The witty and informative authors weave a complex tapestry of unrivaled technological exploration. We enter a chamber of knowledge that allows us to understand a host of ramifications in networking and frame clarity.

Excellent choice of coverage and detail. Exactly matches my expectation of the technical detail level. (suitable for technical mangement) The only problem is it may be a little out of date. If anyone find an update on this book please let us know

OSPF running in NBMA and in Hub-and-Spoke network topology (partially meshed networks) used to be a never land for me. I found it hard to commit the details of every possible changes in this topology into my long term memory. Before I found this book, I used to "memorize" gotcha as many as I can, and I always had hard time to answer my own why. Don't mention configure it with confidence. A variety of Frame Relay interface types such as p2p, p2m, p2m non-broadcast, and multipoint just did not make sense. Do they come solely to mess up with us? Why can't people make things simple and straight? Why is the correct configuration this way, not that way? Chapter 4 in this book answers all my questions about Frame Relay.

Besides different verdor's Lab Workbooks, it is really hard to find a good material like this book which explains Frame Relay and presents scenarios so well. I feel well worth the $40.

The title is accurate because the Jonathan Chin begins each chapter with certain problems that are encountered with Frame Relay. Then he spends that chapter demonstrating how Cisco has addressed these obstacles with new features in their Internetwork Operating System (IOS). Chin deals with the problems of multi-access Frame Relay, but dedicates more time to hub-and-spoke networks, since this is the most common type seen in the industry. There are so many options for shaping and managing traffic across the Frame Relay links with the newer versions of the Cisco IOS. And Chin explains them all showing how they solve existing limitations and what new limitations they bring, if any. When a new feature is presented, he usually charts out the advantages and disadvantages of the new versus the old configurations.
The reader should have some basic knowledge of wide area networking to find the information in the Cisco Frame Relay Solutions Guide useful. The service provider offering complete end-to-end solutions for customers will get the most from the book. However, network administrators throughout the industry will find it useful for managing their leased Frame Relay network. There are some examples of what can be done on only the end DTE routers, without the help of the service provider.
The chapters have excellent references with review questions. Nine of the chapters include case studies where real life problems are problems are described and solutions are shown with configurations. The author obviously has an excellent lab where the solutions were tested and documented. Chin also presents solutions that would be helpful in countries where the infrastructure is out-dated. One nice trick is multi-plexing multiple DLCIs to increase bandwidth where a full T1 is not possible. I give this book a five star rating for layout, accuracy, and usefulness.

Jonathan Chin?s Cisco Frame Relay Solutions Guide (ISBN: 1587051168, Cisco Press) is a new book on an older WAN technology widely deployed in small companies, the enterprise, and service provider networks: Frame Relay. Although one might think that many Cisco Press Frame Relay books exist, there really are none that cover the technology comprehensively, including newer advancements in Frame Relay technology. The closest document would be the Cisco IOS Wide Area Networking Configuration Guide found online or on the Cisco Documentation CD. Jonathan Chin takes many technical aspects and explains them in friendlier terms with IOS command examples and case studies to reinforce the theory. His book includes twenty-two chapters broken out into five major categories:

? Frame Relay ? Technology
? Frame Relay ? Policing & Shaping
? Frame Relay ? Traffic Management
? Frame Relay ? Congestion Management
? Frame Relay ? Congestion Avoidance & Signaling

Just by looking at the major section headers, it is obvious that the book focuses on QoS strategies in a Frame Relay environment, and this is the real value and uniqueness of the book as it discusses updated modular QoS CLI (MQC) best practices in a Frame network. Frame Relay traffic shaping (FRTS) with low latency queuing (LLQ) and class based weighted fair queuing (CBWFQ) is a great example of a real world Frame/QoS strategy that is well documented in this book. FRF.12 fragmentation, compression, and FRF.16 multilink Frame Relay are other topics that Chin covers and helps to clarify their context and possible uses. Aside from QoS techniques, Chin also covers lesser known Frame Relay technologies such as PPP over Frame, Frame SVC?s, and X.25 over Frame. Lastly, Chin spends some time going through different ways to configure a Cisco router to act as a Frame Relay switch, and what types of QoS can be used in those scenarios.

Again, the QoS sections of the book are good and helpful, although at times it seems that too many different topics are covered leaving less in-depth details for any one topic. Readers familiar with MQC will have a much easier time with the book than those who haven?t spent anytime working with or investigating QoS strategy. The major drawback to the book is that it includes some sections that could either be reduced or not included at all. The first 90 pages are devoted to basic Frame Relay technology which in one sense is to be expected in a ?Frame Relay Solutions Guide,? but on the other is unnecessary given that the basics are well documented elsewhere. Chin works in the ?Fancy Queuing? techniques of Priority and Custom queuing on different occasions in the book, which at some level is more a topic of historical knowledge than real world practical. The MQC configs are much more valuable and applicable; more time should have been spent in those areas instead of priority queuing. The X.25 over Frame was a perplexing chapter as Chin states that ?the use of X.25 protocol on network backbones is fast becoming obsolete? (p.332). Again, interesting from a posterity perspective, but the reality is that X.25 is obsolete. Chin would have better served his reading audience by providing just two major categories: Advanced Frame Relay technologies (PPP, Frame/ATM, ELMI Switching, etc) and Frame Relay QoS technologies (FRTS, fragmentation, compression, RSVP, WRED, etc.).

The Cisco Frame Relay Solutions Guide has good information for the small company up to the enterprise and even at the service provider level, especially as it pertains to QoS. Some of the other advanced Frame technologies may be useful at the enterprise level, but the coverage depth is too shallow for the service provider. This is a good book to see what Frame Relay can do outside of configuring your standard PVC?s and when you need to deploy QoS. It is not comprehensive or deep enough, however, to stand as an authoritative source for Frame Relay.

Well, this book was write to help you to understand what you can do using Frame Relay Networks, but I think that he needs some "upgrade", that can be made over ATM Backbones using Frame Relay as access, and to mention how some networks, today, uses this technology. I mean, it's not easy to find some answer for some question, like "How can we use a Frame Relay network, transporting IP packets, and delivery this information using ATM interfaces, by ATM-FR Interworking ?". Of course that's my sugestion, but I found very good informations inside it. I recommends.

Subjects of the book are organized very good and it mentions the technologies with an order. It is separated from the other related books that the author knows frame relay and he presents his kwowledge better. I srongthly recommend to read that book to whom want to learn the basics of frame relay and other technologies.

This book covers all aspects of today's frame relay: history, functionality, deployment, management, internetworking with TCP/IP, ATM, SNA, voice and other frame relay networks and regulatory constraints. It starts with an excellent introduction that will get most people up to speed. All topics are covered in a knowledgeable, readable and sometimes amusing style.

This is the only book I was able to find that had a section on LMI that was over 2 pages in length. ( The section on LMI in this book is 16 pages long ). I have not used this book for any purpose other than studying LMI.

The book is in two parts and each addresses Frame-Relay in a different way. The first part is a largely non-technical introduction to the subject. If you want to know what Frame-Relay is, why it is the way that it is, what it is meant to be used for and how it might fit into a networking system, then you will get all of that here.

The second part is a technical description of the protocol. It goes into enough detail to allow you not just to understand the protocol but, if you have the coding and design skills, to write your own F-R stack and get it interworking with other networks.

I did that using this book as my reference. In the course of that work, I spotted one small error in the book. One bit in the Frame-Relay header field is mis-described but apart from that, it was a great help.

Not only is the technical content spot on but it is well presented. The layout and diagrams make sense and the English is clear and readable.

A little, dinky, expensive hardcover which is pure, low-level data on the topic. Good to have if you need it. Better to complement it with a high-level book which explains the technology in a more mentally digestable format.

This book will give you a good understanding of why and how Frame Relay appeared, where are its strong and weak points and how does it work inside, as well as sound criteria for implementation. However, since 1993 many things have happened, and the book needs to be updated. Frame is compared to X.25, which is almost extinct, and very little is said about Frame vs. ATM, which is now a mature technology. A more recent version would have deserved 5 stars.

Nice & basic, but needs to expand on WAE as it relates to ATM. The evolution of the net will use hodge-podge connections, but there is little doubt that consumers are pushing for "roving" wireless net connections -- which I think will still use ATM @ some "point". The question is, is that ATM point going to grow as a result of consumer mobility? Anyone know of another book (or info) on how to view this from a different viewpoint?

The book has three main sections. One explains network technologies like IP and ATM. The next tells you where they fit into the real world and the third illustrates it.

The style is really nice. It is easy to read, even when some difficult things are being explained. There is plenty of good advice and sharp observation throughout.

Overall, it is a good read and a useful book to have close by. I work with a lot of telecomms people and it has done a lot for my credibility.

There are two things that are very useful about this book.

1. It is easy to read and presents the key facts in a really good way.

2. They explain how the technology is used. No fancy long words. Just nice clear stories - just like a good teacher would do it.

I liked the book for what it did cover but, when the title includes "ATM, IP, Frame Relay, and SMDS explained" I expected the authors to give more than a 50,000 foot overview. The book fell horribly short of the mark especially with respect to IP. IP wasn't even mentioned more than six times in the whole text. If you are looking for an overview of networking technologies this book is "ok" but , if you are looking for a book that explains the technoligies listed in the title this is not it!

This book comes as a handy reference when you need to look up stuff quickly. For instance if you want to check out K1 K2 bytes in a SONET frame and what they do, you can easily find it in this book. In a similar way it covers a broad range of topics, such as ATM, Frame Relay, SONET/SDH, digital hierarchy, xDSL etc.

Its not a definative guide since it does not cover any theoretical aspects of the technologies but still a good everyday reference with tons of pages.

I spent the likes of three days trying to find a book that had a realistic application towards ATM and SONET/SDH technology. Practically by mistake I got lucky and found this one, (via the local bookstore). Not to say that others don't share the same depth, it's just that this one has a format that flows very nicely and is very well organized in thought and technolgy. It also seems to have the best collection of graphics, especially for understanding the bigger picture of device connectivity. It also provides a great history as to how the industry and need for this technology evolved, making it an ideal book for sales and marketing personnel. However, the author describes it as a post-graduate level book. So it is very specific, but its very easy to understand and flows in a logical manner. I can't imagine you would be disappointed. Feel free to write me if you have specific questions about this book.