The point-to-point serial link is a little different than the Frame
Relay serial link. As you recall, Frame Relay is used in many cases in a
point-to-multipoint environment. To create a point-to-point connection
between two routers, you can use other types of WAN encapsulations, such
as HDLC, PPP, and SLIP. For a complete review of these encapsulations,
refer to Chapter 11 of the ICDN book. We will use the default serial
encapsulation, which is HDLC.
For two serial interfaces to communicate, you must provide the clock
rate. The clock rate provides bit synchronization and has other uses
that are beyond the scope of this chapter's purposes. The device that
provides this clock rate is the data circuit-terminating equipment
(DCE). The other device is denoted as the data terminal equipment (DTE).
In the real world, the router is the DTE. The telecom equipment, such
as the Frame Relay switch, is the DCE. Because the lab scenario bypasses
the telecom equipment, you need to specify which router is the DTE and
which one is the DCE; you also need to provide the clock rate. To bypass
the telecom equipment, you need to directly connect the routers with a
DTE–DCE crossover cable. Each end of this cable is labeled as DTE or
DCE. Whichever router is plugged into the DCE end of the cable will need
to provide the clock rate. In the Frame Relay network, the Frame Relay
switch is the DCE, so none of the Frame Relay routers needs to provide
clock rate. For more information on WAN serial cabling and signaling,
refer to Chapter 2 of
Interconnecting Cisco Network Devices from Cisco Press.
First, review the routers that you are going to use to configure a point-to-point serial connection.
Figure 7-4 shows routers R3 and R5. This is the only point-to-point connection in the lab.
In the figure, you can see the R5 has been cabled as the DCE, so it will need to supply the clock rate.
Begin by configuring the serial link and assign IP addresses to the interfaces. Start with R5.
You last configured R2, so you need to go back to the terminal server
and resume the connection to R5. When there, you need to go into global
configuration mode and then into the appropriate interface
configuration. For R5, that would be Serial 0. Example 7-26 walks you
through these initial configuration steps.
Example 7-26. R5 Serial Configuration
R2#
R2#<crtl-shft-6-x>
Termserver#5
[Resuming connection 5 to r5 ... ]
R5#config t
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
R5(config)#interface serial 0
R5(config-if)#
Now that you are in interface configuration mode for R5's Serial 0,
you can execute the necessary configuration commands. The first thing to
do is make the encapsulation type HDLC for the interface. Because HDLC
is the default encapsulation method, you really don't need to execute
the command. However, just for the sake of practice, and so that you
understand that there is a data link layer configuration command for the
serial link, specify HDLC as the encapsulation by entering it as a
command option. This is the same command issued previously when
specifying the encapsulation type for routers R2, R3, and R4; the only
difference is that you specify the
hdlc option instead of
frame-relay.
This is the command for R2's S0, R3's S0, and R4's S0:
Router(config-if)#encapsulation frame-relay [cisco | ietf]
This is the command for R3's S1 and R5's S0:
Router(config-if)#encapsulation hdlc
Unlike Frame Relay, there aren't any different types of HDLC
encapsulation. After you specify the encapsulation type as HDLC, you can
assign the appropriate IP address to the interface.
Example 7-27 shows the commands executed on R5.
Example 7-27. R5 Configuration Commands
R5(config-if)#encapsulation hdlc
R5(config-if)#ip address 192.168.35.5 255.255.255.0
R5(config-if)#
Before removing the interface from shutdown mode, you need to provide the clock rate to R3 using the following command:
Router(config-if)#clock rate {300-8000000 bps}
The only option in this command is to give the speed of the link in
bits per second. Because this is a T1 or E1 interface, you can specify
an easy-to-remember value of 2,000,000. This is the equivalent of an E1
link, which will work for this lab environment. As mentioned earlier, in
the real world, you will not have to configure this parameter. The
telecom service provider will set this value on its equipment. After you
set this value, give the interface a description and remove the
interface from shutdown mode, as demonstrated in Example 7-28.
Example 7-28. clock rate Command
R5(config-if)#clock rate 2000000
R5(config-if)#description This interface connects to R3's S1 (DTE)
R5(config-if)#no shutdown
R5(config-if)#
%LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface Serial0, changed state to down
R5(config-if)#
At first glance, you might get a little nervous that the interface
did not come up, but that is normal. R3's serial interface has not been
configured yet, so the R5 interface is not receiving any signaling from
R3; thus, the interface will remain in the down state until R3 is
configured and removed from shutdown mode. Before you get too far into
this configuration, you should know about a very helpful
show command:
Router#show interfaces [bri | null | serial | tokenring | accounting | crb | irb]
{number}
This command is very useful in troubleshooting and verifying
interface configuration. The first option is to choose which type of
interface you would like to see; the second option is to select the
number of the interface. If you do not select any type of interface, the
command shows you all the interfaces that the router has. Example 7-29
demonstrates sample output of the command on R5.
Example 7-29. show interfaces serial 0 Command Output
R5#show interfaces serial 0
Serial0 is down, line protocol is down
Hardware is HD64570
Description: This interface connects to R3's S1 (DTE)
Internet address is 192.168.35.5/24
MTU 1500 bytes, BW 1544 Kbit, DLY 20000 usec, rely 255/255, load 1/255
Encapsulation HDLC, loopback not set, keepalive set (10 sec)
Last input never, output 2w5d, output hang never
Last clearing of "show interface" counters never
Queueing strategy: fifo
Output queue 0/40, 0 drops; input queue 0/75, 0 drops
5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
5 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
0 packets input, 0 bytes, 0 no buffer
Received 0 broadcasts, 0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored, 0 abort
212 packets output, 18206 bytes, 0 underruns
0 output errors, 0 collisions, 37557 interface resets
0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out
111 carrier transitions
DCD=up DSR=up DTR=down RTS=down CTS=up
The highlighted text reveals some important information regarding the
interface Serial 0. The first thing that you see is the state in which
the interface resides: "Serial0 is down, line protocol is down." The
first "down" (this is referred to as
interface or the physical
layer state) tells you that there is a physical problem. A physical
problem might result from a cable not being plugged in, or the connected
device might not be receiving any electrical signaling, which is the
case here. The "line protocol down" means that Layer 2 is not
functional, meaning that HDLC is not operating correctly for some
reason. It is important to note that the line protocol will never be up
if the interface is in the down state. Next, the output shows the
description placed on the Serial 0 interface. You see the IP address
that you assigned earlier. This is a good place to review your
configuration and make sure that what you typed in the interface
configuration mode was correct. You also see the encapsulation type
here. For a complete review of the output, refer to Chapter 3 of
Interconnecting Cisco Network Devices. You will see this command again after configuring R3's serial interface to see what changes.
To configure R3, you need to go back to the terminal server and
resume the session with R3, but don't forget to save the configuration
before leaving. When at R3, you need to enter global configuration mode
and then go into interface configuration mode for Serial 1. Remember,
you will configure Serial 0 for Frame Relay. Serial 1 connects to R5's
S0 interface. (Refer to your lab diagram.) See Example 7-30.
Example 7-30. R3 Interface Configuration Mode
R5#copy running-config startup-config
Building configuration...
[OK]
R5#<ctrl-shft-6><x>
Termserver#3
[Resuming connection 3 to r3 ... ]
R3#
R3#config t
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
R3(config)#interface serial 1
R3(config-if)#
Now you are in interface configuration mode for Serial 1 on R3, and
you can assign the appropriate IP address and mask. After that, don't
forget to remove the interface from shutdown mode. Example 7-31
illustrates the commands.
Example 7-31. R3 Serial 1 Configuration Commands
R3(config-if)#encapsulation hdlc
R3(config-if)#ip address 192.168.35.3 255.255.255.0
R3(config-if)#description This interface connects to R5's S0 (DCE)
R3(config-if)#no shutdown
R3(config-if)#
%LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface Serial1, changed state to up
R3(config-if)#
%LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Serial1, changed state to up
R3(config-if)#
As you can see, the interface came up, and so did the line protocol. Return to R5 and see how the
show interface command output has changed. Example 7-32 shows the changes in the output.
Example 7-32. R5 show interface serial 0 Command Output
R3(config-if)#end
%SYS-5-CONFIG_I: Configured from console by console
R3#copy running-config startup-config
Building configuration...
[OK]
R3#<ctrl-shft-6-x>
Termserver#5
[Resuming connection 5 to r5 ... ]
R5#
R5#show interface serial 0
Serial0 is up, line protocol is up
Hardware is HD64570
Description: This interface connects to R3's S1 (DTE)
Internet address is 192.168.35.5/24
MTU 1500 bytes, BW 1544 Kbit, DLY 20000 usec, rely 255/255, load 1/255
Encapsulation HDLC, loopback not set, keepalive set (10 sec)
Last input 00:00:01, output 00:00:01, output hang never
Last clearing of "show interface" counters never
Queueing strategy: fifo
Output queue 0/40, 0 drops; input queue 0/75, 0 drops
5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
5 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
25 packets input, 1865 bytes, 0 no buffer
Received 25 broadcasts, 0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored, 0 abort
236 packets output, 20009 bytes, 0 underruns
0 output errors, 0 collisions, 37629 interface resets
0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out
112 carrier transitions
DCD=up DSR=up DTR=up RTS=up CTS=up
R5#
Great! You now should be capable of
pinging R3 from R5, as demonstrated in Example 7-33.
Example 7-33. R5 ping Result
R5#ping 192.168.35.3
Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 192.168.35.3, timeout is 2 seconds:
!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 4/4/8 ms
R5#
You got 100 percent success! R3 and R5 have full IP connectivity. Question: Should R5 be capable of
pinging R3's Serial 0 IP address? Why not? Even though R5 can reach R3 through interface Serial 1, R5 cannot
ping
R3's Serial 0 interface. This is because you do not have any routing
protocols configured to let R5 know about the 192.168.100.0 network, to
which R3's Serial 0 interface belongs. When you have configured all the
interfaces on all the routers, you will start configuring the routing
protocols. Then you should be capable of
pinging any interface on any router.