Performance evaluation of a frame relay based IP router to interconnect ethernet lans

Abstract

Many organizations have a substantial number of computers in operation. All these computers were isolated from each other. Whereas, the jobs done on these machines were strongly correlated. In order to share the computing power and special hardware as the printing machines or extensive disk storage these computers have been interconnected with Local Area Networks (LAN). For geographically distant parts of organizations and companies, the local area networks, due to electrical limitations, are impossible to use. As a solution to this problem, interconnection of LANs over a Wide Area Network (WAN) is proposed and implemented. In this thesis, a gateway is proposed as an interconnection machine. The main communication protocol of nodes in LANs is taken as Internet Protocol (IP). LANs are consisting of well known implementations of IEEE 802.3 standards: Ethernet networks. As a WAN protocol Frame Relay (FR) is proposed. FR is chosen because of its speed compared to traditional communication methods. FR is not the fastest way for interconnection but an economical and sufficient method for the problem.In this thesis, an IP router is proposed to interconnect LANs over FR service. The design is simulated and evaluated on a powerful computer network analysis tool, OPNET, implemented by using PCs and also the system's performance is measured. This thesis covers Ethernet, FR, Internet Protocol, Routers, Ethernet to FR routing problems, computer simulation results and the implemented system's performance measurement results.