Why Do I Need FRTS on My Network?
The most common use for FRTS is to overcome data-rate mismatches. Earlier in
our discussion of GTS, we saw that sometimes the allowed data rate for the network
is lower than the port speed that the interface is delivered on. Beyond this
data-rate mismatch that occurs at the router/switch interface, there is a situation
that is almost as common that occurs when a site acts as the central hub that terminates
many other Frame Relay connections. Consider the example shown in
Figure 8.5.
In this example, we see that Router 1 is connected to a Frame Relay switch
network (shown as the cloud) via a T1 interface with three virtual circuits.
Routers 2 and 3 are connected to different parts of the network, each with a 64
Kbps port speed and a CIR of 16 Kbps. Router 4 is connected with a port speed
of 256 Kbps and a 64 Kbps CIR.