One document matched: draft-ietf-l2vpn-vpls-ldp-05.txt

Differences from draft-ietf-l2vpn-vpls-ldp-04.txt


   Internet Draft Document                              Marc Lasserre 
   Provider Provisioned VPN Working Group               Vach Kompella 
   draft-ietf-l2vpn-vpls-ldp-05.txt                         (Editors) 
   Expires: February 2005                              September 2004 
                                                                         
    
                  Virtual Private LAN Services over MPLS 
                     draft-ietf-l2vpn-vpls-ldp-05.txt 
    
   Status of this Memo 
    
   This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance 
   with all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026. 
    
   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering 
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that      
   other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-
   Drafts. 
    
   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six 
   months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents 
   at any time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as 
   reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." 
    
   The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at 
        http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt 
   The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at 
        http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. 
    
   Abstract 
    
   This document describes a  virtual private LAN service (VPLS) 
   solution using pseudo-wires, a service previously implemented over 
   other tunneling technologies and known as Transparent LAN Services 
   (TLS). A VPLS creates an emulated LAN segment for a given set of 
   users.  It delivers a layer 2 broadcast domain that is fully capable 
   of learning and forwarding on Ethernet MAC addresses that is closed 
   to a given set of users.  Multiple VPLS services can be supported 
   from a single PE node. 
    
   This document describes the control plane functions of signaling 
   demultiplexor labels, extending [PWE3-CTRL].  It is agnostic to 
   discovery protocols.  The data plane functions of forwarding are 
   also described, focusing, in particular, on the learning of MAC 
   addresses.  The encapsulation of VPLS packets is described by [PWE3-
   ETHERNET]. 
    
    
    
 

    
     
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   Conventions 
    
   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", 
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this 
   document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 
   
 
   RELATED DOCUMENTS 
    
   www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-l2vpn-requirements-01.txt 
   www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-l2vpn-l2-framework-03.txt 
   www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-pwe3-ethernet-encap-02.txt 
   www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-pwe3-control-protocol-01.txt 
 
    
    
    
   1.        Introduction 
    
   Ethernet has become the predominant technology for Local Area 
   Networks (LANs) connectivity and is gaining acceptance as an access 
   technology, specifically in Metropolitan and Wide Area Networks (MAN 
   and WAN respectively).  The primary motivation behind Virtual 
   Private LAN Services (VPLS) is to provide connectivity between 
   geographically dispersed customer sites across MAN/WAN network(s), as 
   if they were connected using a LAN. The intended application for the 
   end-user can be divided into the following two categories:  
 
     - Connectivity between customer routers: LAN routing application
     - Connectivity between customer Ethernet switches: LAN switching 
       application 
 
   Broadcast and multicast services are available over traditional 
   LANs. Sites that belong to the same broadcast domain and that are 
   connected via an MPLS network expect broadcast, multicast and 
   unicast traffic to be forwarded to the proper location(s). This 
   requires MAC address learning/aging on a per LSP basis, packet 
   replication across LSPs for multicast/broadcast traffic and for 
   flooding of unknown unicast destination traffic. 
    
   [PWE3-ETHERNET] defines how to carry L2 PDUs over point-to-point 
   MPLS LSPs, called pseudowires (PW). Such PWs can be carried over 
   MPLS or GRE tunnels. This document describes extensions to [PWE3-
   CTRL] for transporting Ethernet/802.3 and VLAN [802.1Q] traffic 
   across multiple sites that belong to the same L2 broadcast domain or 
   VPLS. Note that the same model can be applied to other 802.1 
   technologies. It describes a simple and scalable way to offer 
   Virtual LAN services, including the appropriate flooding of 
   broadcast, multicast and unknown unicast destination traffic over 
   MPLS, without the need for address resolution servers or other 
   external servers, as discussed in [L2VPN-REQ]. 
     
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   The following discussion applies to devices that are VPLS capable 
   and have a means of tunneling labeled packets amongst each other.  
   While MPLS LSPs may be used to tunnel these labeled packets, other 
   technologies may be used as well, e.g., GRE [MPLS-GRE].  The 
   resulting set of interconnected devices forms a private MPLS VPN. 
    
   2.        Topological Model for VPLS 
    
   An interface participating in a VPLS must be able to flood, forward, 
   and filter Ethernet frames.  
    
   +----+                                              +----+ 
   + C1 +---+      ...........................     +---| C1 | 
   +----+   |      .                         .     |   +----+ 
   Site A   |   +----+                    +----+   |   Site B 
            +---| PE |------ Cloud -------| PE |---+ 
                +----+         |          +----+ 
                   .           |             . 
                   .         +----+          . 
                   ..........| PE |........... 
                             +----+         ^ 
                               |            |    
                               |            +-- Emulated LAN 
                             +----+          
                             | C1 |          
                             +----+ 
                             Site C 
    
   The set of PE devices interconnected via pseudowires appears as a 
   single emulated LAN to customer C1. Each PE device will learn remote 
   MAC address to pseudowire associations and will also learn directly 
   attached MAC addresses on customer facing ports.   
    
   We note here again that while this document shows specific examples 
   using MPLS transport tunnels, other tunnels that can be used by 
   pseudo-wires, e.g., GRE, L2TP, IPSEC, etc., can also be used, as 
   long as the originating PE can be identified, since this is used in 
   the MAC learning process. 
    
   The scope of the VPLS lies within the PEs in the service provider 
   network, highlighting the fact that apart from customer service 
   delineation, the form of access to a customer site is not relevant 
   to the VPLS [L2VPN-REQ]. 
    
   The PE device is typically an edge router capable of running the LDP 
   signaling protocol and/or routing protocols to set up pseudowires.  
   In addition, it is capable of setting up transport tunnels to other 
   PEs and deliver traffic over a pseudowire. 
    
    
    
     
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   2.1.          Flooding and Forwarding 
    
   One of attributes of an Ethernet service is that packets to 
   broadcast packets and to unknown destination MAC addresses are 
   flooded to all ports. To achieve flooding within the service 
   provider network, all address unknown unicast, broadcast and 
   multicast frames are flooded over the corresponding pseudowires to 
   all relevant PE nodes participating in the VPLS.  
    
   Note that multicast frames are a special case and do not necessarily 
   have to be sent to all VPN members. For simplicity, the default 
   approach of broadcasting multicast frames can be used. The use of 
   IGMP snooping and PIM snooping techniques should be used to improve 
   multicast efficiency. 
    
   To forward a frame, a PE MUST be able to associate a destination MAC 
   address with a pseudowire. It is unreasonable and perhaps impossible 
   to require PEs to statically configure an association of every 
   possible destination MAC address with a pseudowire. Therefore, VPLS-
   capable PEs SHOULD have the capability to dynamically learn MAC 
   addresses on both physical ports and virtual circuits and to forward 
   and replicate packets across both physical ports and pseudowires. 
 
    
   2.2.          Address Learning 
    
   Unlike BGP VPNs [BGP-VPN], reachability information does not need to 
   be advertised and distributed via a control plane.  Reachability is 
   obtained by standard learning bridge functions in the data plane.  
    
   A pseudowire consists of a pair of uni-directional VC LSPs.  The 
   state of this pseudowire is considered operationally up when both 
   incoming and outgoing VC LSPs are established.  Similarly, it is 
   considered operationally down when one of these two VC LSPs is torn 
   down.  When a previously unknown MAC address is learned on an 
   inbound VC LSP, it needs to be associated with the its counterpart 
   outbound VC LSP in that pseudowire. 
    
   Standard learning, filtering and forwarding actions, as defined in 
   [802.1D-ORIG], [802.1D-REV] and [802.1Q], are required when a 
   logical link state changes. 
    
    
   2.3.          Tunnel Topology 
    
   PE routers are assumed to have the capability to establish transport 
   tunnels.  Tunnels are set up between PEs to aggregate traffic.  
   Pseudowires are signaled to demultiplex the L2 encapsulated packets 
   that traverse the tunnels. 
    
   In an Ethernet L2VPN, it becomes the responsibility of the service 
   provider to create the loop free topology.  For the sake of 
     
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   simplicity, we define that the topology of a VPLS is a full mesh of 
   tunnels and pseudowires. 
    
    
   2.4.          Loop free L2 VPN 
    
   For simplicity, a full mesh of pseudowires is established between 
   PEs.  Ethernet bridges, unlike Frame Relay or ATM where the 
   termination point becomes the CE node, have to examine the layer 2 
   fields of the packets to make a switching decision.  If the frame is 
   directed to an unknown destination, or is a broadcast or multicast 
   frame, the frame must be flooded. 
    
   Therefore, if the topology isn't a full mesh, the PE devices may 
   need to forward these frames to other PEs. However, this would 
   require the use of spanning tree protocol to form a loop free 
   topology that may have characteristics that are undesirable to the 
   provider. The use of a full mesh and split-horizon forwarding 
   obviates the need for a spanning tree protocol. 
    
   Each PE MUST create a rooted tree to every other PE router that 
   serves the same VPLS.  Each PE MUST support a "split-horizon" scheme 
   in order to prevent loops, that is, a PE MUST NOT forward traffic 
   from one pseudowire to another in the same VPLS mesh (since each PE 
   has direct connectivity to all other PEs in the same VPLS). 
    
   Note that customers are allowed to run STP such as when a customer 
   has "back door" links used to provide redundancy in the case of a 
   failure within the VPLS.  In such a case, STP BPDUs are simply 
   tunneled through the provider cloud. 
    
   3.        Discovery 
    
   The capability to manually configure the addresses of the remote PEs 
   is REQUIRED.  However, the use of manual configuration is not 
   necessary if an auto-discovery procedure is used.  A number of 
   auto-discovery procedures are compatible with this document     
   ([RADIUS-DISC], [BGP-DISC], [LDP-DISC]). 
    
   4.        Control Plane 
    
   This document describes the control plane functions of Demultiplexor 
   Exchange (signaling of VC labels).  Some foundational work in the 
   area of support for multi-homing is laid.  The extensions to provide  
   multi-homing support should work independently of the basic VPLS 
   operation, and are not described here. 
    
   4.1.          LDP Based Signaling of Demultiplexors 
    
   In order to establish a full mesh of pseudowires, all PEs in a VPLS 
   must have a full mesh of LDP sessions. 
    
     
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   Once an LDP session has been formed between two PEs, all pseudowires 
   are signaled over this session. 
    
   In [PWE3-CTRL], two types of FECs are described, the FEC type 128 
   PWid FEC Element and the FEC type 129 Generalized PWid FEC Element.  
   The original FEC element used for VPLS was compatible with the PWid 
   FEC Element.  The text for signaling using PWid FEC Element has been 
   moved to Appendix 1.  What we describe below replaces that with a 
   more generalized L2VPN descriptor through the Generalized PWid FEC 
   Element. 
    
   4.1.1.            Using the Generalized PWid FEC Element 
    
   [PWE3-CTRL] describes a generalized FEC structure that is be used 
   for VPLS signaling in the following manner.  The following describes 
   the assignment of the Generalized PWid FEC Element fields in the 
   context of VPLS signaling. 
    
   Control bit (C): Depending on whether, on that particular 
   pseudowire, the control word is desired or not, the control bit may 
   be specified. 
    
   PW type: The allowed PW types in this version are Ethernet and 
   Ethernet VLAN. 
    
   VC info length: Same as in [PWE3-CTRL]. 
    
   AGI, Length, Value: The unique name of this VPLS.  The AGI 
   identifies a type of name, the length denotes the length of Value, 
   which is the name of the VPLS.  We will use the term AGI 
   interchangeably with VPLS identifier. 
    
   TAII, SAII: These are null because the mesh of PWs in a VPLS 
   terminate on MAC learning tables, rather than on individual 
   attachment circuits. 
    
   Interface Parameters: The relevant interface parameters are: 
        MTU: the MTU of the VPLS MUST be the same across all the PWs in 
             the mesh. 
        Optional Description String: same as [PWE3-CTRL]. 
        Requested VLAN ID: If the PW type is Ethernet VLAN, this 
             parameter may be used to signal the insertion of the 
             appropriate VLAN ID. 
    
   4.1.2.            Address Withdraw Message Containing MAC TLV 

   When MAC addresses are being removed or relearned explicitly, e.g., 
   the primary link of a dual-homed MTU-s (Multi-Tenant Unit switch) 
   has failed, an MAC Address Withdraw Message with the list of MAC 
   addresses to be relearned can be sent to all other PEs over the 
   corresponding directed LDP sessions. 

     
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   The processing for MAC List TLVs received in an Address Withdraw 
   Message is: 
     For each MAC address in the TLV: 
     - Relearn the association between the MAC address and the 
        interface/pseudowire over which this message is received 
    
     For a MAC Address Withdraw message with empty list: 
     - Remove all the MAC addresses associated with the VPLS instance 
        (specified by the FEC TLV) except the MAC addresses learned 
        over this link (over the pseudowire associated with the 
        signaling link over which the message is received)  

   The scope of a MAC List TLV is the VPLS specified in the FEC TLV in
   the MAC Address Withdraw Message.  The number of MAC addresses can be 
   deduced from the length field in the TLV.   
    
 
   4.2.          MAC Address Withdrawal 

   It MAY be desirable to remove or relearn MAC addresses that have 
   been dynamically learned for faster convergence. 
    
   We introduce an optional MAC List TLV that is used to specify a list
   of MAC addresses that can be removed or relearned using the LDP 
   Address Withdraw Message. 

   The Address Withdraw message with MAC TLVs MAY be supported in order 
   to expedite removal of MAC addresses as the result of a topology 
   change (e.g., failure of the primary link for a dual-homed MTU-s). 
   If a notification message is sent on the backup link (blocked link), 
   which has transitioned into an active state (e.g., similar to 
   Topology Change Notification message of 802.1w RSTP), with a list of 
   MAC entries to be relearned, the PE will update the MAC entries in 
   its FIB for that VPLS instance and send the message to other PEs 
   over the corresponding directed LDP sessions. 
    
   If the notification message contains an empty list, this tells the 
   receiving PE to remove all the MAC addresses learned for the 
   specified VPLS instance except the ones it learned from the sending 
   PE (MAC address removal is required for all VPLS instances that are 
   affected).  Note that the definition of such a notification message 
   is outside the scope of the document, unless it happens to come from 
   an MTU connected to the PE as a spoke.  In such a scenario, the 
   message will be just an Address Withdraw message as noted above. 

   4.2.1.            MAC List TLV 

   MAC addresses to be relearned can be signaled using an LDP Address 
   Withdraw Message that contains a new TLV, the MAC List TLV.  Its 
     
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   format is described below.  The encoding of a MAC List TLV address 
   is the 6-byte MAC address specified by IEEE 802 documents [g-ORIG]
   [802.1D-REV].   
    
     0                   1                   2                   3 
     0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ 
    |U|F|       Type                |            Length             | 
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ 
    |                      MAC address #1                           | 
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ 
    |                      MAC address #n                           | 
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ 

   U bit 
        Unknown bit.  This bit MUST be set to 1.  If the MAC address 
   format is not understood, then the TLV is not understood, and MUST 
   be ignored. 

   F bit 
        Forward bit.  This bit MUST be set to 0.  Since the LDP 
   mechanism used here is Targeted, the TLV MUST NOT be forwarded. 

   Type 
        Type field.  This field MUST be set to 0x0404 (subject to IANA 
   approval).  This identifies the TLV type as MAC List TLV. 

   Length 
        Length field.  This field specifies the total length of the MAC 
   addresses in the TLV. 

   MAC Address 
        The MAC address(es) being removed. 

   The LDP Address Withdraw Message contains a FEC TLV (to identify the 
   VPLS in consideration), a MAC Address TLV and optional parameters.  
   No optional parameters have been defined for the MAC Address 
   Withdraw signaling. 
    
   5.        Data Forwarding on an Ethernet VC Pseudowire 
    
   This section describes the dataplane behavior on an Ethernet 
   pseudowire used in a VPLS.  While the encapsulation is similar to 
   that described in [PWE3-ETHERNET], the NSP functions of stripping 
   the service-delimiting tag and using a "normalized" Ethernet packet 
   are described. 
    
   5.1.          VPLS Encapsulation actions 
    
   In a VPLS, a customer Ethernet packet without preamble is 
   encapsulated with a header as defined in [PWE3-ETHERNET].  A 
   customer Ethernet packet is defined as follows: 
     
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      - If the packet, as it arrives at the PE, has an encapsulation 
        that is used by the local PE as a service delimiter, i.e., to 
        identify the customer and/or the particular service of that 
        customer, then that encapsulation is stripped before the packet 
        is sent into the VPLS.  As the packet exits the VPLS, the 
        packet may have a service-delimiting encapsulation inserted. 
         
      - If the packet, as it arrives at the PE, has an encapsulation 
        that is not service delimiting, then it is a customer packet 
        whose encapsulation should not be modified by the VPLS.  This 
        covers, for example, a packet that carries customer-specific 
        VLAN-Ids that the service provider neither knows about nor 
        wants to modify. 
 
   As an application of these rules, a customer packet may arrive at a 
   customer-facing port with a VLAN tag that identifies the customer's 
   VPLS instance.  That tag would be stripped before it is encapsulated 
   in the VPLS.  At egress, the packet may be tagged again, if a 
   service-delimiting tag is used, or it may be untagged if none is 
   used. 
    
   Likewise, if a customer packet arrives at a customer-facing port 
   over an ATM VC that identifies the customer's VPLS instance, then 
   the ATM encapsulation is removed before the packet is passed into 
   the VPLS. 
    
   Contrariwise, if a customer packet arrives at a customer-facing port 
   with a VLAN tag that identifies a VLAN domain in the customer L2 
   network, then the tag is not modified or stripped, as it belongs 
   with the rest of the customer frame. 
    
   By following the above rules, the Ethernet packet that traverses a 
   VPLS is always a customer Ethernet packet.  Note that the two 
   actions, at ingress and egress, of dealing with service delimiters 
   are local actions that neither PE has to signal to the other.  They 
   allow, for example, a mix-and-match of VLAN tagged and untagged 
   services at either end, and do not carry across a VPLS a VLAN tag 
   that has local significance only.  The service delimiter may be an 
   MPLS label also, whereby an Ethernet pseudowire given by [PWE3-
   ETHERNET] can serve as the access side connection into a PE.  An 
   RFC1483 PVC encapsulation could be another service delimiter.  By 
   limiting the scope of locally significant encapsulations to the 
   edge, hierarchical VPLS models can be developed that provide the 
   capability to network-engineer VPLS deployments, as described below. 
 
   5.2               VPLS Learning actions 
    
   Learning is done based on the customer Ethernet packet, as defined 
   above.  The Forwarding Information Base (FIB) keeps track of the 
   mapping of customer Ethernet packet addressing and the appropriate 

     
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   pseudowire to use.  We define two modes of learning: qualified and 
   unqualified learning.   
 
   In unqualified learning, all the customer VLANs are handled by a 
   single VPLS, which means they all share a single broadcast domain 
   and a single MAC address space. This means that MAC addresses need 
   to be unique and non-overlapping among customer VLANs or else they 
   cannot be differentiated within the VPLS instance and this can 
   result in loss of customer frames. An application of unqualified 
   learning is port-based VPLS service for a given customer (e.g., 
   customer with non-multiplexed UNI interface where all the traffic on 
   a physical port, which may include multiple customer VLANs, is 
   mapped to a single VPLS instance).  
    
   In qualified learning, each customer VLAN is assigned to its own 
   VPLS instance, which means each customer VLAN has its own broadcast 
   domain and MAC address space. Therefore, in qualified learning, MAC 
   addresses among customer VLANs may overlap with each other, but they 
   will be handled correctly since each customer VLAN has its own FIB, 
   i.e., each customer VLAN has its own MAC address space.  Since VPLS 
   broadcasts multicast frames by default, qualified learning offers 
   the advantage of limiting the broadcast scope to a given customer 
   VLAN.  
    
   For STP to work in qualified mode, a VPLS PE must be able to forward 
   STP BPDUs over the proper VPLS instance. In a hierarchical VPLS case 
   (see details in Section 10), service delimiting tags (Q-in-Q or 
   Martini) can be added by MTU-s nodes such that PEs can unambiguously 
   identify all customer traffic, including STP/MSTP BPDUs. In a basic 
   VPLS case, upstream switches must insert such service delimiting 
   tags. When an access port is shared among multiple customers, a 
   reserved VLAN per customer domain must be used to carry STP/MSTP 
   traffic. The STP/MSTP frames are encapsulated with a unique provider 
   tag per customer (as the regular customer traffic), and a PEs looks 
   up the provider tag to send such frames across the proper VPLS 
   instance. 
    
   6.        Data Forwarding on an Ethernet VLAN Pseudowire 
    
   This section describes the dataplane behavior on an Ethernet VLAN 
   pseudowire in a VPLS.  While the encapsulation is similar to that 
   described in [PWE3-ETHERNET], the NSP functions of imposing tags, 
   and using a "normalized" Ethernet packet are described.  The 
   learning behavior is the same as for Ethernet pseudowires. 
    
   6.1.          VPLS Encapsulation actions 
    
   In a VPLS, a customer Ethernet packet without preamble is 
   encapsulated with a header as defined in [PWE3-ETHERNET].  A 
   customer Ethernet packet is defined as follows: 
         

     
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      - If the packet, as it arrives at the PE, has an encapsulation 
        that is part of the customer frame, and is also used by the 
        local PE as a service delimiter, i.e., to identify the customer 
        and/or the particular service of that customer, then that 
        encapsulation is preserved as the packet is sent into the VPLS, 
        unless the Requested VLAN ID optional parameter was signaled.  
        In that case, the VLAN tag is overwritten before the packet is 
        sent out on the pseudowire. 
         
      - If the packet, as it arrives at the PE, has an encapsulation 
        that does not have the required VLAN tag, a null tag is imposed 
        if the Requested VLAN ID optional parameter was not signaled. 
 
   As an application of these rules, a customer packet may arrive at a 
   customer-facing port with a VLAN tag that identifies the customer's 
   VPLS instance and also identifies a customer VLAN.  That tag would 
   be preserved as it is encapsulated in the VPLS. 
    
   The Ethernet VLAN pseudowire is a simple way to preserve customer 
   802.1p bits. 
    
   A VPLS MAY have both Ethernet and Ethernet VLAN pseudowires.  
   However, if a PE is not able to support both pseudowires 
   simultaneously, it can send a Label Release on the pseudowire 
   messages that it cannot support with a status code "Unknown FEC" as 
   given in [RFC3036]. 
    
   7.         Operation of a VPLS 
    
   We show here an example of how a VPLS works.  The following 
   discussion uses the figure below, where a VPLS has been set up 
   between PE1, PE2 and PE3. 
    
   Initially, the VPLS is set up so that PE1, PE2 and PE3 have a full 
   mesh of Ethernet pseudowires.  The VPLS instance is assigned a 
   unique VCID. 
    
   For the above example, say PE1 signals VC Label 102 to PE2 and 103 
   to PE3, and PE2 signals VC Label 201 to PE1 and 203 to PE3. 
    
   Assume a packet from A1 is bound for A2.  When it leaves CE1, say it 
   has a source MAC address of M1 and a destination MAC of M2.  If PE1 
   does not know where M2 is, it will multicast the packet to PE2 and 
   PE3.  When PE2 receives the packet, it will have an inner label of 
   201.  PE2 can conclude that the source MAC address M1 is behind PE1, 
   since it distributed the label 201 to PE1.  It can therefore 
   associate MAC address M1 with VC Label 102. 
    




     
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                                                         ----- 
                                                        /  A1 \ 
           ----                                    ----CE1    | 
          /    \          --------       -------  /     |     | 
          | A2 CE2-      /        \     /       PE1     \     / 
          \    /   \    /          \---/         \       ----- 
           ----     ---PE2                        | 
                       | Service Provider Network | 
                        \          /   \         / 
                 -----  PE3       /     \       / 
                 |Agg|_/  --------       ------- 
                -|   | 
         ----  / -----  ---- 
        /    \/    \   /    \                 CE = Customer Edge Router 
        | A3 CE3    --C4 A4 |                 PE = Provider Edge Router 
        \    /         \    /                 Agg = Layer 2 Aggregation 
         ----           ---- 
    
    
    
   7.1.           MAC Address Aging 
    
   PEs that learn remote MAC addresses need to have an aging mechanism 
   to remove unused entries associated with a VC Label.  This is 
   important both for conservation of memory as well as for 
   administrative purposes.  For example, if a customer site A is shut 
   down, eventually, the other PEs should unlearn A's MAC address.   
    
   As packets arrive, MAC addresses are remembered.  The aging timer 
   for MAC address M SHOULD be reset when a packet is received with 
   source MAC address M. 
    
   8.         A Hierarchical VPLS Model 
    
   The solution described above requires a full mesh of tunnel LSPs 
   between all the PE routers that participate in the VPLS service.  
   For each VPLS service, n*(n-1)/2 pseudowires must be setup between 
   the PE routers.  While this creates signaling overhead, the real 
   detriment to large scale deployment is the packet replication 
   requirements for each provisioned VCs on a PE router.  Hierarchical 
   connectivity, described in this document reduces signaling and 
   replication overhead to allow large scale deployment. 
     
   In many cases, service providers place smaller edge devices in 
   multi-tenant buildings and aggregate them into a PE device in a 
   large Central Office (CO) facility. In some instances, standard IEEE 
   802.1q (Dot 1Q) tagging techniques may be used to facilitate mapping 
   CE interfaces to PE VPLS access points.  
    
   It is often beneficial to extend the VPLS service tunneling 
   techniques into the MTU (multi-tenant unit) domain.  This can be 
   accomplished by treating the MTU device as a PE device and 
     
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   provisioning pseudowires between it and every other edge, as an 
   basic VPLS.  An alternative is to utilize [PWE3-ETHERNET] 
   pseudowires or Q-in-Q logical interfaces between the MTU and 
   selected VPLS enabled PE routers. Q-in-Q encapsulation is another 
   form of L2 tunneling technique, which can be used in conjunction 
   with MPLS signaling as will be described later. The following two 
   sections focus on this alternative approach.  The VPLS core 
   pseudowires (Hub) are augmented with access pseudowires (Spoke) to 
   form a two-tier hierarchical VPLS (H-VPLS). 
    
   Spoke pseudowires may be implemented using any L2 tunneling 
   mechanism, expanding the scope of the first tier to include non-
   bridging VPLS PE routers. The non-bridging PE router would extend a 
   Spoke pseudowire from a Layer-2 switch that connects to it, through 
   the service core network, to a bridging VPLS PE router supporting 
   Hub pseudowires.  We also describe how VPLS-challenged nodes and 
   low-end CEs without MPLS capabilities may participate in a 
   hierarchical VPLS. 
    
   8.1.           Hierarchical connectivity 
    
   This section describes the hub and spoke connectivity model and 
   describes the requirements of the bridging capable and non-bridging 
   MTU devices for supporting the spoke connections. 
    
   For rest of this discussion we will refer to a bridging capable MTU 
   device as MTU-s and a non-bridging capable PE device as PE-r.  A 
   routing and bridging capable device will be referred to as PE-rs.   
    
   8.1.1.             Spoke connectivity for bridging-capable devices 
    
   As shown in the figure below, consider the case where an MTU-s 
   device has a single connection to the PE-rs device placed in the CO.  
   The PE-rs devices are connected in a basic VPLS full mesh.  For each 
   VPLS service, a single spoke pseudowire is set up between the MTU-s 
   and the PE-rs based on [PWE3-CTRL]. Unlike traditional pseudowires 
   that terminate on a physical (or a VLAN-tagged logical) port at each 
   end, the spoke pseudowire terminates on a virtual bridge instance on 
   the MTU-s and the PE-rs devices. 













     
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                                                          PE2-rs 
                                                          ------ 
                                                         /      \ 
                                                        |   --   | 
                                                        |  /  \  | 
    CE-1                                                |  \B /  | 
     \                                                   \  --  / 
      \                                                  /------ 
       \   MTU-s                          PE1-rs        /   | 
        \ ------                          ------       /    |    
         /      \                        /      \     /     |      
        | \ --   |      VC-1            |   --   |---/      | 
        |  /  \--|- - - - - - - - - - - |--/  \  |          |    
        |  \B /  |                      |  \B /  |          |   
         \ /--  /                        \  --  / ---\      |    
          /-----                          ------      \     |     
         /                                             \    | 
       ----                                             \ ------ 
      |Agg |                                             /      \      
       ----                                             |  --    | 
      /    \                                            | /  \   | 
     CE-2  CE-3                                         | \B /   | 
                                                         \ --   / 
    MTU-s = Bridging capable MTU                          ------   
    PE-rs = VPLS capable PE                               PE3-rs 
    
    --  
   /  \  
   \B / = Virtual VPLS(Bridge)Instance 
    --  
    Agg = Layer-2 Aggregation 
    
   The MTU-s device and the PE-rs device treat each spoke connection 
   like an access port of the VPLS service. On access ports, the 
   combination of the physical port and/or the VLAN tag is used to 
   associate the traffic to a VPLS instance while the pseudowire tag 
   (e.g., VC label) is used to associate the traffic from the virtual 
   spoke port with a VPLS instance, followed by a standard L2 lookup to 
   identify which customer port the frame needs to be sent to. 
    
   8.1.1.1.               MTU-s Operation 
    
   MTU-s device is defined as a device that supports layer-2 switching 
   functionality and does all the normal bridging functions of learning 
   and replication on all its ports, including the virtual spoke port.  
   Packets to unknown destination are replicated to all ports in the 
   service including the virtual spoke port.  Once the MAC address is 
   learned, traffic between CE1 and CE2 will be switched locally by the 
   MTU-s device saving the link capacity of the connection to the PE-
   rs.  Similarly traffic between CE1 or CE2 and any remote destination 
   is switched directly on to the spoke connection and sent to the PE-
   rs over the point-to-point pseudowire.   
     
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   Since the MTU-s is bridging capable, only a single pseudowire is 
   required per VPLS instance for any number of access connections in 
   the same VPLS service.  This further reduces the signaling overhead 
   between the MTU-s and PE-rs.  
    
   If the MTU-s is directly connected to the PE-rs, other encapsulation 
   techniques such as Q-in-Q can be used for the spoke connection 
   pseudowire. 
    
   8.1.1.2.               PE-rs Operation 
    
   The PE-rs device is a device that supports all the bridging 
   functions for VPLS service and supports the routing and MPLS 
   encapsulation, i.e. it supports all the functions described for a 
   basic VPLS as described above.  
    
   The operation of PE-rs is independent of the type of device at the 
   other end of the spoke pseudowire.  Thus, the spoke pseudowire from 
   the PE-r is treated as a virtual port and the PE-rs device will 
   switch traffic between the spoke pseudowire, hub pseudowires, and 
   access ports once it has learned the MAC addresses. 
    
   8.1.2.             Advantages of spoke connectivity  
    
   Spoke connectivity offers several scaling and operational advantages 
   for creating large scale VPLS implementations, while retaining the 
   ability to offer all the functionality of the VPLS service.  
    
  - Eliminates the need for a full mesh of tunnels and full mesh of 
     pseudowires per service between all devices participating in the 
     VPLS service. 
  - Minimizes signaling overhead since fewer pseudowires are required 
     for the VPLS service. 
  - Segments VPLS nodal discovery.  MTU-s needs to be aware of only 
     the PE-rs node although it is participating in the VPLS service 
     that spans multiple devices.  On the other hand, every VPLS PE-rs 
     must be aware of every other VPLS PE-rs device and all of it's 
     locally connected MTU-s and PE-r.  
  - Addition of other sites requires configuration of the new MTU-s 
     device but does not require any provisioning of the existing MTU-s 
     devices on that service. 
  - Hierarchical connections can be used to create VPLS service that 
     spans multiple service provider domains. This is explained in a 
     later section. 
    
   8.1.3.             Spoke connectivity for non-bridging devices 
    
   In some cases, a bridging PE-rs device may not be deployed in a CO 
   or a multi-tenant building while a PE-r might already be deployed.  
   If there is a need to provide VPLS service from the CO where the PE-
   rs device is not available, the service provider may prefer to use 
     
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   the PE-r device in the interim.  In this section, we explain how a 
   PE-r device that does not support any of the VPLS bridging 
   functionality can participate in the VPLS service. 
    
   As shown in this figure, the PE-r device creates a point-to-point 
   tunnel LSP to a PE-rs device.  Then for every access port that needs               
    
                                                          PE2-rs 
                                                          ------ 
                                                         /      \ 
                                                        |   --   | 
                                                        |  /  \  | 
    CE-1                                                |  \B /  | 
     \                                                   \  --  / 
      \                                                  /------ 
       \   PE-r                           PE1-rs        /   | 
        \ ------                          ------       /    |    
         /      \                        /      \     /     |      
        | \      |      VC-1            |   --   |---/      | 
        |  ------|- - - - - - - - - - - |--/  \  |          |    
        |   -----|- - - - - - - - - - - |--\B /  |          |   
         \ /    /                        \  --  / ---\      |    
          ------                          ------      \     |     
         /                                             \    | 
       ----                                             \------ 
      | Agg|                                            /      \      
       ----                                            |  --    | 
      /    \                                           | /  \   | 
     CE-2  CE-3                                        | \B /   | 
                                                        \ --   / 
                                                         ------   
                                                         PE3-rs 
    
    
   to participate in a VPLS service, the PE-r device creates a point-
   to-point [PWE3-ETHERNET] pseudowire that terminates on the physical 
   port at the PE-r and terminates on the virtual bridge instance of 
   the VPLS service at the PE-rs.   
    
    
   8.1.3.1.               PE-r Operation 
    
   The PE-r device is defined as a device that supports routing but 
   does not support any bridging functions.  However, it is capable of 
   setting up [PWE3-ETHERNET] pseudowires between itself and the PE-rs.  
   For every port that is supported in the VPLS service, a [PWE3-
   ETHERNET] pseudowire is setup from the PE-r to the PE-rs.  Once the 
   pseudowires are setup, there is no learning or replication function 
   required on part of the PE-r.  All traffic received on any of the 
   access ports is transmitted on the pseudowire.  Similarly all 
   traffic received on a pseudowire is transmitted to the access port 

     
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   where the pseudowire terminates.  Thus traffic from CE1 destined for 
   CE2 is switched at PE-rs and not at PE-r.   
    
   This approach adds more overhead than the bridging capable (MTU-s) 
   spoke approach since a pseudowire is required for every access port 
   that participates in the service versus a single pseudowire required 
   per service (regardless of access ports) when a MTU-s type device is 
   used.  However, this approach offers the advantage of offering a 
   VPLS service in conjunction with a routed internet service without 
   requiring the addition of new MTU device. 
    
   8.2.           Redundant Spoke Connections 
    
   An obvious weakness of the hub and spoke approach described thus far 
   is that the MTU device has a single connection to the PE-rs device.  
   In case of failure of the connection or the PE-rs device, the MTU 
   device suffers total loss of connectivity.  
    
   In this section we describe how the redundant connections can be 
   provided to avoid total loss of connectivity from the MTU device.  
   The mechanism described is identical for both, MTU-s and PE-r type 
   of devices 
    
    
   8.2.1.             Dual-homed MTU device 
    
   To protect from connection failure of the pseudowire or the failure 
   of the PE-rs device, the MTU-s device or the PE-r is dual-homed into 
   two PE-rs devices, as shown in figure-3.  The PE-rs devices must be 
   part of the same VPLS service instance.    
    
   An MTU-s device will setup two [PWE3-ETHERNET] pseudowires (one each 
   to PE-rs1 and PE-rs2) for each VPLS instance. One of the two 
   pseudowires is designated as primary and is the one that is actively 
   used under normal conditions, while the second pseudowire is 
   designated as secondary and is held in a standby state.  The MTU 
   device negotiates the pseudowire labels for both the primary and 
   secondary pseudowires, but does not use the secondary pseudowire 
   unless the primary pseudowire fails.  Since only one link is active 
   at a given time, a loop does not exist and hence 802.1D spanning 
   tree is not required. 
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
     
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                                                          PE2-rs 
                                                          ------ 
                                                         /      \ 
                                                        |   --   | 
                                                        |  /  \  | 
    CE-1                                                |  \B /  | 
      \                                                  \  --  / 
       \                                                 /------ 
        \  MTU-s                          PE1-rs        /   | 
         \------                          ------       /    |    
         /      \                        /      \     /     |      
        |   --   |   Primary PW         |   --   |---/      | 
        |  /  \--|- - - - - - - - - - - |--/  \  |          |    
        |  \B /  |                      |  \B /  |          |   
         \  -- \/                        \  --  / ---\      |    
          ------\                         ------      \     |     
          /      \                                     \    | 
         /        \                                     \ ------  
        /          \                                     /      \      
       CE-2         \                                   |  --    | 
                     \     Secondary PW                 | /  \   | 
                      - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |-\B /   | 
                                                         \ --   / 
                                                          ------   
                                                          PE3-rs 
    
    
   8.2.2.             Failure detection and recovery 
    
   The MTU-s device controls the usage of the pseudowires to the PE-rs 
   nodes.  Since LDP signaling is used to negotiate the pseudowire 
   labels, the hello messages used for the LDP session can be used to 
   detect failure of the primary pseudowire.  
    
   Upon failure of the primary pseudowire, MTU-s device immediately 
   switches to the secondary pseudowire.  At this point the PE3-rs 
   device that terminates the secondary pseudowire starts learning MAC 
   addresses on the spoke pseudowire.  All other PE-rs nodes in the 
   network think that CE-1 and CE-2 are behind PE1-rs and may continue 
   to send traffic to PE1-rs until they learn that the devices are now 
   behind PE3-rs.  The relearning process can take a long time and may 
   adversely affect the connectivity of higher level protocols from CE1 
   and CE2.  To enable faster convergence, the PE3-rs device where the 
   secondary pseudowire got activated may send out a flush message, 
   using the MAC TLV as defined in Section 6, to all PE-rs nodes. Upon 
   receiving the message, PE-rs nodes flush the MAC addresses 
   associated with that VPLS instance. 
    
    
    
    

     
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   8.3.           Multi-domain VPLS service 
    
   Hierarchy can also be used to create a large scale VPLS service 
   within a single domain or a service that spans multiple domains 
   without requiring full mesh connectivity between all VPLS capable 
   devices. Two fully meshed VPLS networks are connected together using 
   a single LSP tunnel between the VPLS "border" devices.  A single 
   spoke pseudowire per VPLS service is set up to connect the two 
   domains together.     
    
   When more than two domains need to be connected, a full mesh of 
   inter-domain spokes is created between border PEs. Forwarding rules 
   over this mesh are identical to the rules defined in section 5. 
    
   This creates a three-tier hierarchical model that consists of a hub-
   and-spoke topology between MTU-s and PE-rs devices, a full-mesh 
   topology between PE-rs, and a full mesh of inter-domain spokes 
   between border PE-rs devices. 
    
   9.         Hierarchical VPLS model using Ethernet Access Network 
    
   In this section the hierarchical model is expanded to include an 
   Ethernet access network. This model retains the hierarchical 
   architecture discussed previously in that it leverages the full-mesh 
   topology among PE-rs devices; however, no restriction is imposed on 
   the topology of the Ethernet access network (e.g., the topology 
   between MTU-s and PE-rs devices are not restricted to hub and spoke). 
    
   The motivation for an Ethernet access network is that Ethernet-based 
   networks are currently deployed by some service providers to offer 
   VPLS services to their customers. Therefore, it is important to 
   provide a mechanism that allows these networks to integrate with an 
   IP or MPLS core to provide scalable VPLS services. 
    
   One approach of tunneling a customer's Ethernet traffic via an 
   Ethernet access network is to add an additional VLAN tag to the 
   customer's data (which may be either tagged or untagged). The 
   additional tag is referred to as Provider's VLAN (P-VLAN). Inside the 
   provider's network each P-VLAN designates a customer or more 
   specifically a VPLS instance for that customer. Therefore, there is a 
   one to one correspondence between a P-VLAN and a VPLS instance.  
    
   In this model, the MTU-S device needs to have the capability of 
   adding the additional P-VLAN tag for non-multiplexed customer UNI 
   port where customer VLANs are not used as service delimiter. If 
   customer VLANs need to be treated as service delimiter (e.g., 
   customer UNI port is a multiplexed port), then the MTU-s needs to 
   have the additional capability of translating a customer VLAN (C-
   VLAN) to a P-VLAN in order to resolve overlapping VLAN-ids used by 
   different customers. Therefore, the MTU-s device in this model can be 
   considered as a typical bridge with this additional UNI capability. 
    
     
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   The PE-rs device needs to be able to perform bridging functionality 
   over the standard Ethernet ports toward the access network as well as 
   over the pseudowires toward the network core. The set of pseudowires 
   that corresponds to a VPLS instance would look just like a P-VLAN to 
   the bridge portion of the PE-rs and that is why sometimes it is 
   referred to as Emulated VLAN. In this model the PE-rs may need to run 
   STP protocol in addition to split-horizon. Split horizon is run over 
   MPLS-core; whereas, STP is run over the access network to accommodate 
   any arbitrary access topology. In this model, the PE-rs needs to map 
   a P-VLAN to a VPLS-instance and its associated pseudowires and vise 
   versa. 
    
   The details regarding bridge operation for MTU-s and PE-rs (e.g., 
   encapsulation format for QinQ messages, customer's Ethernet control 
   protocol handling, etc.) are outside of the scope of this document 
   and they are covered in [802.1ad]. However, the relevant part is the 
   interaction between the bridge module and the MPLS/IP pseudowires in 
   the PE-rs device. 
    
   9.1.           Scalability 
    
   Given that each P-VLAN corresponds to a VPLS instance, one may think 
   that the total number of VPLS instances supported is limited to 4K. 
   However, the 4K limit applies only to each Ethernet access network 
   (Ethernet island) and not to the entire network. The SP network, in 
   this model, consists of a core MPLS/IP network that connects many 
   Ethernet islands. Therefore, the number of VPLS instances can scale 
   accordingly with the number of Ethernet islands (a metro region can 
   be represented by one or more islands). Each island may consist of 
   many MTU-s devices, several aggregators, and one or more PE-rs 
   devices. The PE-rs devices enable a P-VLAN to be extended from one 
   island to others using a set of pseudowires (associated with that 
   VPLS instance) and providing a loop free mechanism across the core 
   network through split-horizon.  Since a P-VLAN serves as a service 
   delimiter within the provider's network, it does not get carried over 
   the pseudowires and furthermore the mapping between P-VLAN and the 
   pseudowires is a local matter. This means a VPLS instance can be 
   represented by different P-VLAN in different Ethernet islands and 
   furthermore each island can support 4K VPLS instances independent 
   from one another. 
    
    
   9.2.           Dual Homing and Failure Recovery 
    
   In this model, an MTU-s can be dual or triple homed to different 
   devices (aggregators and/or PE-rs devices). The failure protection 
   for access network nodes and links can be provided through running 
   MSTP in each island. The MSTP of each island is independent from 
   other islands and do not interact with each other.  If an island has 
   more than one PE-rs, then a dedicated full-mesh of pseudowires is 
   used among these PE-rs devices for carrying the SP BPDU packets for 
   that island. On a per P-VLAN basis, the MSTP will designate a single 
     
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   PE-rs to be used for carrying the traffic across the core. The loop-
   free protection through the core is performed using split-horizon and 
   the failure protection in the core is performed through standard 
   IP/MPLS re-routing. 
 
   10.         Significant Modifications 
    
   Between rev 04 and this one, these are the changes: 

       o Fixed idnits
 
   11.         Contributors 
    
   Loa Andersson, TLA 
   Ron Haberman, Masergy 
   Juha Heinanen, Independent 
   Giles Heron, Tellabs 
   Sunil Khandekar, Alcatel 
   Luca Martini, Cisco 
   Pascal Menezes, Terabeam                          
   Rob Nath, Riverstone                                                         
   Eric Puetz, SBC 
   Vasile Radoaca, Nortel 
   Ali Sajassi, Cisco 
   Yetik Serbest, SBC 
   Nick Slabakov, Riverstone 
   Andrew Smith, Consultant 
   Tom Soon, SBC 
   Nick Tingle, Alcatel 
    
   12.         Acknowledgments 
    
   We wish to thank Joe Regan, Kireeti Kompella, Anoop Ghanwani, Joel 
   Halpern, Rick Wilder, Jim Guichard, Steve Phillips, Norm Finn, Matt 
   Squire, Muneyoshi Suzuki, Waldemar Augustyn, Eric Rosen, Yakov 
   Rekhter, and Sasha Vainshtein for their valuable feedback.  

   We would also ike to thank Rajiv Papneja (ISOCORE), Winston Liu
   (ISOCORE), and Charlie Hundall (Extreme) for identifying issues 
   with the draft in the course of the interoperability tests. 
    
   13. Security Considerations 
    
   A more comprehensive description of the security issues involved in 
   L2VPNs is covered in [VPN-SEC].  An unguarded VPLS service is 
   vulnerable to some security issues which pose risks to the customer 
   and provider networks.  Most of the security issues can be avoided 
   through implementation of appropriate guards.  A couple of them can 
   be prevented through existing protocols. 
    
     . Data plane aspects 

     
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          o Traffic isolation between VPLS domains is guaranteed by 
             the use of per VPLS L2 FIB table and the use of per VPLS 
             pseudowires 
          o The customer traffic, which consists of Ethernet frames, 
             is carried unchanged over VPLS. If security is required, 
             the customer traffic SHOULD be encrypted and/or 
             authenticated before entering the service provider network 
          o Preventing broadcast storms can be achieved by using 
             routers as CPE devices or by rate policing the amount of 
             broadcast traffic that customers can send. 
     . Control plane aspects 
          o LDP security (authentication) methods as described in 
             [RFC-3036] SHOULD be applied.  This would prevent 
             unauthorized participation by a PE in a VPLS. 
     . Denial of service attacks 
          o Some means to limit the number of MAC addresses (per site 
             per VPLS) that a PE can learn SHOULD be implemented. 
    
   14. Full Copyright Statement 
    
      Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001).  All Rights Reserved.  
   This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to 
   others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it 
   or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published 
   and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any 
   kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph 
   are included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this 
   document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing 
   the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other 
   Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of 
   developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for 
   copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be 
   followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than 
   English. 
    
   The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be 
   revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns. 
    
   This document and the information contained herein is provided on an 
   "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING 
   TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING 
   BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION 
   HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF 
   MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. 
   
   15. IPR Notice

   The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
   intellectual property or other rights that might be claimed to
   pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
   this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
   might or might not be available; neither does it represent that it

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   has made any effort to identify any such rights.  Information on the
   IETF's procedures with respect to rights in standards-track and
   standards-related documentation can be found in BCP-11.  Copies of
   claims of rights made available for publication and any assurances of
   licenses to be made available, or the result of an attempt made to
   obtain a general license or permission for the use of such
   proprietary rights by implementors or users of this specification can
   be obtained from the IETF Secretariat.

   The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
   copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary
   rights which may cover technology that may be required to practice
   this standard.  Please address the information to the IETF Executive
   Director.
 
   16. Normative References 
    
   [PWE3-ETHERNET] "Encapsulation Methods for Transport of Ethernet 
   Frames Over IP/MPLS Networks", draft-ietf-pwe3-ethernet-encap-06.
   txt, Work in progress, April 2004. 
    
   [PWE3-CTRL] "Transport of Layer 2 Frames over MPLS", draft-ietf-
   pwe3-control-protocol-06.txt, Work in progress, March 2004. 
    
   [802.1D-ORIG] Original 802.1D - ISO/IEC 10038, ANSI/IEEE Std 802.1D-
   1993 "MAC Bridges". 
    
   [802.1D-REV] 802.1D - "Information technology - Telecommunications 
   and information exchange between systems - Local and metropolitan 
   area networks - Common specifications - Part 3: Media Access Control 
   (MAC) Bridges: Revision. This is a revision of ISO/IEC 10038: 1993, 
   802.1j-1992 and 802.6k-1992. It incorporates P802.11c, P802.1p and 
   P802.12e." ISO/IEC 15802-3: 1998. 
    
   [802.1Q] 802.1Q - ANSI/IEEE Draft Standard P802.1Q/D11, "IEEE 
   Standards for Local and Metropolitan Area Networks: Virtual Bridged 
   Local Area Networks", July 1998. 
   
   [RFC3036] "LDP Specification", L. Andersson, et al.  RFC 3036.  
   January 2001. 
    
   17. Informative References
 
   [BGP-VPN] "BGP/MPLS VPNs". draft-ietf-l3vpn-rfc2547bis-01.txt, Work 
   in Progress, September 2003. 
    
   [RADIUS-DISC] "Using Radius for PE-Based VPN Discovery", draft-ietf-
   l2vpn-radius-pe-discovery-00.txt, Work in Progress, February 2004. 
    
   [BGP-DISC] "Using BGP as an Auto-Discovery Mechanism for Network-
   based VPNs", draft-ietf-l3vpn-bgpvpn-auto-02.txt, Work in Progress, 
   April 2004. 

    
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   [LDP-DISC] "Discovering Nodes and Services in a VPLS Network", 
   draft-stokes-ppvpn-vpls-discover-00.txt, Work in Progress, June 
   2002. 
    
   [L2FRAME] "Framework for Layer 2 Virtual Private Networks (L2VPNs)", 
   draft-ietf-l2vpn-l2-framework-04, Work in Progress, March 2004. 
 
   [L2VPN-REQ] "Service Requirements for Layer-2 Provider Provisioned 
   Virtual Private  Networks", draft-ietf-l2vpn-requirements-01.txt, 
   Work in Progress, February 2004. 
    
   [VPN-SEC] "Security Framework for Provider Provisioned Virtual 
   Private Networks", draft-ietf-l3vpn-security-framework-01.txt, Work
   in Progress, February 2004.
   
   [802.1ad] "IEEE standard for Provider Bridges", Work in Progress, 
   December 2002. 
    
   Appendix 1.  Signaling a VPLS Using the PWid FEC Element 
    
   This section is being retained because live deployments use this 
   version of the signaling for VPLS. 
    
   The VPLS signaling information is carried in a Label Mapping message 
   sent in downstream unsolicited mode, which contains the following VC 
   FEC TLV. 
    
   VC, C, VC Info Length, Group ID, Interface parameters are as defined 
   in [PWE3-CTRL]. 
    
    0                   1                   2                   3 
    0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ 
    |    VC tlv     |C|         VC Type             |VC info Length | 
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ 
    |                      Group ID                                 | 
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ 
    |                        VCID                                   | 
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ 
    |                       Interface parameters                    | 
    ~                                                               ~ 
    |                                                               | 
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ 
 
   We use the Ethernet pseudowire type to identify pseudowires that 
   carry Ethernet traffic for multipoint connectivity. 
    
   In a VPLS, we use a VCID (which has been substituted with a more 
   general identifier, to address extending the scope of a VPLS) to 
   identify an emulated LAN segment.  Note that the VCID as specified 
   in [PWE3-CTRL] is a service identifier, identifying a service 
   emulating a point-to-point virtual circuit.  In a VPLS, the VCID is 
   a single service identifier. 
 
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   18. Authors' Addresses 
    
   Marc Lasserre  
   Riverstone Networks  
   Email: marc@riverstonenet.com  
    
   Vach Kompella  
   Alcatel 
   Email: vach.kompella@alcatel.com  












































     
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