A data link connection identifier (DLCI) is a

Frame Relay Frame Relay is a standardized wide area network (WAN) technology that specifies the physical and data link layers of digital telecommunications channels using a packet switching methodology. Originally designed for transport across Integrated ...

10-bit-wide link-local virtual circuit identifier used to assign frames to a specific PVC or

SVC SVC or .svc may refer to: Biology * Spring viraemia of carp, a disease of fish * Superior vena cava, a heart vein Colleges * Saginaw Valley College, now Saginaw Valley State University, Michigan, US * School of Visual Concepts, Seattle, Was ...

. Frame Relay networks use DLCIs to statistically multiplex frames. DLCIs are preloaded into each switch and act as road signs to the traveling frames. The standard allows the existence of 1024 DLCIs. DLCI 0 is reserved for the

ANSI The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organ ...

/q993a LMI standard—only numbers 16 to 976 are usable for end-user equipment. DLCI 1023 is reserved for

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develo ...

LMI, however, numbers 16 to 1007 are usable. In summary, if using Cisco LMI, numbers from 16 to 1007 are available for end-user equipment. The rest are reserved for various management purposes. DLCI are Layer 2 Addresses that are locally significant. No two devices have the same DLCI mapped to its interface in one frame relay cloud.

References

Link protocols Frame Relay {{telecomm-stub