Nortel Networks CG030601 User Manual

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Configuration Guide 
Contivity Secure IP Services Gateway 
Frame Relay on Contivity Secure IP Services Gateway 
 
CG030601  
           
2.00         July 2003
 
 
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Address resolution for PVCs 
Address resolution for PVCs maps a remote network address such as an IP address to a 
local DLCI number.  IP uses the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP). ARP dynamically 
generates an ARP table of addresses and DLCI numbers by sending messages back and 
forth to each network node to gather address information. This process increases 
broadcast traffic across the network. 
 
 
Committed information rate 
The committed information rate (CIR) is the rate at which the network supports data 
transfer under normal operations. Its name is descriptive: you have a contract with your 
carrier, who has committed to providing a given throughput, here called the committed 
information rate. The CIR is measured in bits per second. You configure this value that 
the carrier provides per virtual circuit. 
 
When configuring the CIR, consider the following: 
 
CIR of 0 
You can contract with a carrier for a CIR of 0, which yields best-effort service at low cost. 
The carrier transmits data, but does not commit to providing a specified throughput. To 
configure a CIR of 0, set both the throughput (which is the CIR) and the committed burst 
(Bc) to 0, and set the excess burst (Be) to a value greater than 0. For more information 
about burst rates, see the next section, “Committed burst rate and excess burst rate.” 
 
Maximum CIR 
The maximum CIR should not be greater than the speed of the access line on the slower 
end of a virtual circuit. In a big pipe/little pipe topology likely CIRs at the remote sites 
would be 32 Kb/s, 56 Kb/s, or 64 Kb/s. If you configure CIRs for these virtual circuits at 
the central site, you can use CIR enforcement (described in the next section) to prevent 
the big pipe from sending traffic that exceeds the PVC CIRs. 
 
 
Committed burst rate and excess burst rate 
The committed burst rate (Bc) defines the number of bits that the CES can transmit over a 
specified time interval (Tc) when congestion is occurring. The excess burst (Be) defines 
the number of extra bits that the CES attempts to send over the Tc when there is no 
congestion. Both the Bc and the Be are values that you configure. 
 
The sum of the Bc and the Be is the maximum amount of traffic that can travel across the 
network per Tc when there is no congestion. If you set the Be to a value greater than zero, 
the CES can send traffic exceeding the CIR. To enforce the CIR, that is, to limit traffic 
that the CES can send to the amount of the CIR, set the Be to 0.