Abstract: A network management system monitors and controls a frame relay network using management information transmitted directly or across the frame relay network itself in network management services vectors intended for the sole purpose of transmitting network management information to the network management system. Newly defined network management major vector formats are used to transmit detailed information concerning both the status of the various virtual circuit segments in the network and the configuration of the switched connections between those segments to form virtual circuits through the network for communication between users of the network. More particularly, status bits are defined to indicate that data links nodes are not supported by adjacent nodes of the network, and status bits to indicate likely physical failures in the hardware used to realize the data links, or logical faults involved in inconsistent indications from adjacent nodes.

Abstract: In a CSMA/CD communication protocol, data to be sent from one device on a communication network to another is put into frames, or predetermined sized pieces of information. One of the fields in a frame, the pad field, is used to make the total size of the frame large enough to ensure that a collision anywhere in the network with another frame is detected by the senders. The pad field is further used to identify when a data record will be continued in the next frame and also to identify when multiple data records are being sent in the same frame.