Virtual Private LAN Services (VPLS)
DC-MPLS
Data Connection is the leading supplier of MPLS control plane software
Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) is a type of layer 2 VPN. In a VPLS, the Ethernet LAN at each customer site is extended as far as the edge of the provider network. The provider network then emulates the function of a LAN switch or bridge to connect all of the customer LANs to create a single bridged (Ethernet) LAN.
One of the main differences between a VPLS and a VPWS is that the VPWS only provides a point-to-point service, whereas the VPLS provides a point-to-multipoint service. This also means that the requirements on the Customer Edge (CE) devices are quite different. In a VPWS, the CE routers provide layer 2 switching and choose which Virtual Wire to use to send data to another customer site. By comparison, in a VPLS, the CE routers simply send all traffic destined for other sites to the Provider Edge (PE) router, which routes it to the relevant destination PE routers over the underlying MPLS tunnels.
This requires each PE device to act like an Ethernet bridge. PE devices learn the location of layer 2 MAC addresses from the traffic flows and use them to switch subsequent frames. As well as being remembered locally, these addresses are communicated to other PE devices using extensions to the LDP protocol.
DC-MPLS provides full VPLS signaling support using DC-LDP, which includes a comprehensive implementation of LDP and its VPLS extensions, including draft-ietf-l2vpn-vpls-ldp. DC-MPLS can also be used to signal the underlying tunnels using DC-LDP or DC-RSVP.
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For more information about Data Connection's MPLS products and expertise contact dcmpls@dataconnection.com.