Frame Relay question.

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Hello everybody.
One quick question.
On CCNA book it states that Frame Relay operates at the lower two layers of the OSI reference module, physical and data-link layers and that it relies in upper layers for error correction (TCP) network layer.

On the online material it states that Frame Relay is a packet-switched, connection-oriented, WAN service. It operates at the data link layer of the OSI reference model. As you can see, Data Link Layer only.

Now on the book at the end of the chapter there's a small exam to be taken to check upon knowledge. One of the questions is exactly at what layer of the OSI reference module does it operates so naturally I have chosen layer 1 and 2 and only for my surprise at the end of the book on the solutions it says that the correct answer and the only correct one was in fact Network Layer 3.

Witch one is correct guys?

Cheers and Happy Easter to all.

 

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Hi Albert,

The Frame Relay protocol is a Layer 2 protocol, however from a pragmatic perspective of putting it into service there may well be Layer 1 restrictions and conditions such as the physical specifications required of the DTE/DCE equipment. That is, if you were ordering a Frame Relay service from a service provider then there would be Layer 1 and 2 aspects to be considered. Frame Relay itself however governs the layer 2 operation.

The book exam answer of Layer 3 is just a mistake - quite common unfortunately. Incidentally, as you point out Frame Relay provides no error detection/correction (unlike X25) and so this is left to higher-level protocols - typically TCP which is at Layer 4 (not 3).

Does this help?

Mathew

 

It sure did mate.
Thanks ever so much for the reply.
I kep getting confused with network and transport layer and it's getting on my nerves lol.
Thanks for the help mate.