Introduction to L2VPN

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 259
 Multiple Services over a
Converged Infrastructure

Frame IP
Relay VPN
ATM
Frame Relay

Frame Relay ATM PPP IP/MPLS ATM

IP/MPLS
RPR
Internet Internet Ethernet
Ethernet

Many Services, Many Services,

Many Networks One Network
MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 260
 Motivation for L2VPNs:
Converged Networks Support
New Service Growth Edge Packet Switched Network

Existing Infrastructure PE

Ethernet MPLS/IP

IP/ IPsec
Broadband
Access
FR/ATM
Broadband Frame Relay
ATM

• Reduce overlapping core expense; consolidate trunk lines

• Offer multiservice/common interface (i.e. Ethernet MUX = L2, L3 and Internet)
• Maintain existing revenues from legacy services
AGG-1001
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© 2006 Cisco
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Inc. All
All rights
rights reserved.
reserved. 261 261
 Motivation for L2VPNs:
The Ever Expanding Applications of Ethernet
Access Aggregation PSN Aggregation Access

Internet

VLAN 100
Termination
MPLS/IP
VLAN 200 VLAN
200
Transport

VPWS
Layer3

• Fast becoming the access technology of choice

• Layer 2, Layer 3 and Internet Services on a common port
• Extends the reach of Metro Area Ethernet Networks
AGG-1001
MPLS Overview © 2005
© 2006 Cisco
Cisco Systems,
Systems, Inc.
Inc. All
All rights
rights reserved.
reserved. 262 262
 Why is L2VPN needed?
• Allows SP to have a single infrastructure for both IP
and legacy services
• Migration
• Provisioning is incremental
• Network Consolidation
• Capital and Operational savings
• Customer can have their own routing, qos policies,
security mechanisms, etc
• Layer 3 (IPv4, IPX, OSPF, BGP, etc …) on CE routers is
transparent to MPLS core
• CE1 router sees CE2 router as next-hop
• No routing involved with MPLS core
• open architecture and vendor interoperability
MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 263
 Introduction to Layer 2 and Layer 3
VPN Services
Layer 3 VPN Link LEGEND
Comprised of IP Traffic
Layer 3 VPN
Passed Over IP Backbone
CE Layer 2 VPN CE

PE
IP
Backbone
CE PE CE

Layer 2 VPN Which

Passes—Ethernet, ATM, Frame
Relay, PPP, HDLC Traffic Over IP
Backbone
• Layer 2 and Layer 3 VPN Services are offered from
the edge of a network

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 264
 Layer 3 and Layer 2 VPN Characteristics

Layer 3 VPNs Layer 2 VPNs

1. Packet-based forwarding 1. Frame-based forwarding
e.g. IP e.g. DLCI, VLAN, VPI/VCI
2. SP is involved 2. No SP involvement
3. IP specific 3. Multiprotocol support
4. Example: RFC 2547bis 4. Example:
VPNs (L3 MPLS-VPN) FR—ATM—Ethernet

The Choice of L2VPN over L3VPN Will Depend on How Much

Control the Enterprise Wants to Retain
L2 VPN Services Are Complementary to L3 VPN Services

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 265
 L2VPN - Simple definition
L2VPN

Vegas – PE1 San Jose – PE2

CE1 CE2
MPLS or IP

Ingress Traffic Encap: Egress Traffic Encap:

ATM ATM
FR FR
Ethernet Ethernet
PPP PPP
HDLC HDLC

L2VPN provides an end-to-end layer 2 connection to an

enterprise office in Vegas and San Jose over a SP’s
MPLS or IP core

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 266
 L2VPN Models
L2-VPN Models

MPLS Core IP Core

VPWS VPLS VPWS

P2MP/
Like-to-Like -or- MP2MP Like-to-Like -or-
Any-to-Any P2P Any-to-Any P2P

Ethernet
FR ATM PPP/ FR ATM PPP/
AAL5/Cell HDLC AAL5/Cell HDLC

Ethernet Ethernet

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 267
 Pseudowire—
IETF Technology Adoption

• Virtual private wire service (VPWS) P2P

RFC3916 Pseudo Wire Emulation Edge-to-Edge (PWE3) Requirements
RFC3985 Pseudo Wire Emulation Edge-to-Edge (PWE3) Architecture
RFC 4447 Pseudowire Setup and Maintenance Using the Label Distribution Protocol
(LDP)
RFC4385 Pseudo wire Emulation Edge-to-Edge (PWE3) Control Word for Use over an
MPLS PSN
RFC 4448 Encapsulation Methods for Transport of Ethernet over MPLS Networks
draft-ietf-pwe3-[atm, frame-relay etc.]
• Virtual private LAN services (VPLS) P2M
draft-ietf-l2vpn-vpls-ldp-xx
draft-ietf-l2vpn-vpls-bgp-xx

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 268
 • Layer 2 Transport (VPWS)
L2TPv3
draft-ietf-l2tpext-l2tp-base-xx
draft-ietf-l2tpext-l2tpmib-base-xx

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 269
 VPWS—Pseudowire Reference Model

Customer Customer
Site Site
AC1 MPLS or IP Core AC2

Pseudowires
SJC Vegas

AC3 AC4
Customer Customer
Site Site

Emulated Service

A Pseudowire (PW) Is a Connection Between Two Provider

Edge (PE) Devices Which Connects Two Attachment Circuits
(ACs)

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 270
 Building Blocks for L2VPNs—
Data Plan Components—MPLS Core

Customer
VF 100 MPLS VF 200 Customer
Site Site
VC Label 36

Vlan 10 TL Vlan 100

PE1 PE2
Vegas San Jose
VC Label 121
Control
Connection
• Virtual Forwarders (VF)—Subsystem that associates AC to PW =LDP
• Tunnel Label (TL)—Path between PE1 and PE2
• Pseudowire (PW)—Paths between VFs, a pair of unidirectional TL
LSPs—VC label
VC Label
• Attachment Circuits (AC)—L2 connection between CE and PE,
i.e. VLAN, DLCI, ATM, etc.
L2 PDU

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 271
 Building Blocks for L2VPNs—
Data Plan Components—FR Example

Customer
MPLS Customer
Site Site
VC Label 36

DLCI 20 TL DLCI 200

PE1 PE2
Vegas San Jose
VC Label 121

PE1 Egress Packet

“PWE3” PW
Encapsulation

FR Control VC Tunnel L2
PDU Word Label Label Headers
MPLS Labels

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 272
 PWE3 Signaling Concepts

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 273
 Building Blocks for L2VPNs—Control Plane
2. Control 2. Control
Plane Plane
2. Auto-discovery (BGP) CE2
CE1
1. VPN101 1. VPN101
Config Config
MPLS
4. Data 4. Data
PE1 Plane Plane PE2

3. Control 3. Control
Plane 3. Signaling (LDP) Plane
Primary Primary

1. Provision Config VPN

2. Auto-discovery Advertise loopback and VPN members
3. Signaling Setup pseudowire
4. Data Plane Packet forwarding

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 274
 LDP Signaling Overview
Four Classes of LDP Messages:
1. Peer discovery
LDP link hello message
Targeted hello message
UDP
2. LDP session
LDP initialization and keepalive
Setup, maintain and disconnect LDP session
3. Label advertisement
Create, update and delete label mappings
TCP
4. LDP notification
Signal error or status info

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 275
 L2VPN LDP Extended Discovery
Hello Adjacency Established
PE2
PE1
P1 P3
Primary
Site1 Primary

P2 P4 Site2

Targeted Hello

• Targeted Hello Messages Are Exchanged as UDP

Packets on Port 646 Consisting of router-id and
label space

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 276
 L2VPN LDP Session Establishment
Exchange LDP Parameters
PE2
PE1
P1 P3
Primary
Site1 Primary

P2 P4 Site2

LDP Session Established TCP Connection

• Active role PE—establishes TCP connection using port 646

• LDP peers exchange and negotiate session parameters such as the
protocol version, label distribution methods, timer values, label
ranges, and so on
• LDP session is operational

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 277
 L2VPN—Pseudowire Label Binding
2. PE1 Binds VCID 4. PE2 Repeats
to VC Label Same Steps

PE2
PE1 P1 P3
CE1 Primary CE2
Site1 Primary
Site2

P2 P4

3. PE2
1. Provision Matches its
AC and PW VCID to One
Received
Uni-Directional PW LSP Established
MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 278
 New VC FEC Element

VC TLV C VC Type VC Info Length

Group ID
VC ID
Interface Parameters
Virtual Circuit FEC Element
• C—control word present
• VC Type—ATM, FR, Ethernet, HDLC, PPP, etc.
• VC Info Length—length of VCID
• Group ID—group of VCs referenced by index (user configured)
• VC ID—used to identify Virtual Circuit
• Interface Parameters—MTU, etc.

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 279
 Pseudowire VC Type
Some Widely Deployed VC Types
PW Type Description
0x0001 Frame Relay DLCI
0x0002 ATM AAL5 SDU VCC transport
0x0003 ATM transparent cell transport
0x0004 Ethernet Tagged Mode (VLAN)
0x0005 Ethernet
0x0006 HDLC
0x0007 PPP

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 280
 L2VPNs—Label Stacking
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

Tunnel Label Tunnel Label (LDP/RSVP) EXP 0 TTL

VC Label VC Label (VC) EXP 1 TTL

Control Word Rsvd Flags 0 0 Length Sequence Number

Layer 2 PDU

Three Layers of Encapsulation

• Tunnel label—determines path through network
• VC label—identifies VC at endpoint
• Control word—contains attributes of L2 payload (optional)

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 281
 Generic Control Word—
VC Information Fields
Control Word
bits 4 4 8 16

Rsvd Flags Length Sequence Number

• Use of control word is optional

• Flags—carries “flag” bits depending on Control Word

encapsulation Encap. Required

CR No
(FR;FECN, BECN, C/R, DE, ATM;CLP, EFCI, C/R, etc) AAL5 Yes
Eth No
• Length—required for padding small frames
FR Yes
when < interface MTU HDLC No
• Sequence number—used to detect out of order PPP No

delivery of frames
MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 282
 VPWS Transport

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 283
 VPWS Transports—Encapsulations

• Ethernet/802.1Q VLAN (EoMPLS)

RFC 4448 Encapsulation Methods for Transport of Ethernet over
MPLS Networks
• Frame Relay (FRoMPLS)
draft-ietf-pwe3-frame-relay-encap-xx.txt
• ATM AAL5 and ATM Cell (ATMoMPLS)
draft-ietf-pwe3-atm-encap-xx.txt
• PPP/HDLC (PPPoMPLS/HDLCoMPLS)
draft-ietf-pwe3-hdlc-ppp-encap-mpls-xx.txt

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 284
 VPWS Transports

CE
Frame MPLS Frame
CE

Relay Relay
CE CE
ATM ATM

CE PPP/ PPP/ CE
HDLC HDLC

CE CE
Ethernet Ethernet

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 285
 VPWS Transports Service—Reference Model
End-to-End VPWS VCs

Pair of Uni-Directional
PW LSPs
One One
Bi-Directional Bi-Directional
Ethernet Ethernet
CE-1 ATM ATM CE-2
FR FR
PPP PPP
HDLC PE1 PE2 HDLC
Tunnel LSP

Pseudowire Emulated Service

• Pseudowire transport (across PEs) applications

• Local switching (within a PE) applications

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 286
 VPWS EoMPLS—
RFC 4448

Original Ethernet or VLAN Frame

Preamble DA SA 802.1q L Payload FCS

Tunnel VC Ethernet Ethernet

DA’ SA’ 0x8847 FCS’
Label Label Header Payload

• VC type-0x0004 is used for VLAN over MPLS

application
• VC type-0x0005 is used for Ethernet port tunneling
application (port transparency)

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 287
 VPWS FRoMPLS—
draft-ietf-pwe3-frame-relay-encap-xx.txt

DLCI C/R EA DLCI FECN BECN DE EA Frame Relay Header

6 1 1 4 1 1 1 1

Frame Relay Frame

Q.922
Payload FCS
Header

4 Octets 4 Octets 4 Octets

Tunnel VC Control
Frame Relay PDU
Label Label Word

Bits 4 1 1 1 1 8 16
Rsvd F B D C Length Sequence Number FR Control Word

• F = FECN (Forward Explicit Congestion Notification)

• B = BECN (Backward Explicit Congestion Notification)
• D = DE (Discard Eligibility Indicator)
• C = C/R (Command/Response Field)

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 288
 VPWS CRoMPLS—
draft-ietf-pwe3-atm-encap-xx.txt
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

Control Word Rsvd 0 0 0 0 0 0 Length Sequence number

VPI VCI PTI C

ATM Cell Payload

• This is cell relay over MPLS (VC/VP/port mode)

• Single cell is encapsulated; no HEC (52 bytes only)
• Control word is optional
• Control word flags should be set to zero and ignored

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 289
 VPWS CPKoMPLS—Encapsulation
draft-ietf-pwe3-atm-encap-xx.txt

ATM Cell
<4 bits> <8 bits> <16 bits> <3 bits> <1 bit> <8 bits> " 48 Bytes #

GFC VPI VCI PT CLP HEC Payload

Single Cell Relay

ATM Header
Tunnel Label VC Label Payload
w/o HEC

" 4 Bytes #" 4 Bytes #" 4 Bytes #" 48 Bytes #

Packed Cell Relay

ATM Header Cells x N ATM Header
Tunnel Label VC Label w/o HEC Payload w/o HEC Payload
…
" 4 Bytes #" 4 Bytes # " 4 Bytes #" 48 Bytes # "52xN Bytes# "4 Bytes# " 48 Bytes
#

Packed Cells Max 28

28*52=1456 Bytes

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 290
 VPWS CPKoMPLS—
draft-ietf-pwe3-atm-encap-xx.txt
CPKoMPLS = Cell Packing over MPLS
• Used to mitigate cell to MPLS packet MTU
inefficiencies
• Concatenated ATM cell (52 bytes); no HEC
• Maximum 28 cells per MPLS frame
(<1500 byte MTU)
• VC/VP/port mode support
• Cell Packing operation:
-Maximum Number of Cells to Pack (MNCP)
-Minimum Cell Packing Timer (MCPT)

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 291
 VPWS AAL5oMPLS—
draft-ietf-pwe3-atm-encap-xx.txt

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

Control Word Rsvd T E C U 0 0 Length Sequence number

AAL5 CPCS-SDU

• AAL5 SDU is encapsulated

• Control word is required
• Service allows transport of OAM and Resource
Management cells
• Control word flags encapsulate transport type, EFCI,
CLP, C/R bit
MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 292
 VPWS PPPoMPLS/HDLCoMPLS—
draft-ietf-pwe3-hdlc-ppp-encap-xx.txt

• Cisco HDLC and PPP PDUs are transported without

flags or FCS
PPP frames also do not carry HDLC address and control information

• The control word is optional

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

Rsvd 0 0 0 0 0 0 Length Sequence number Optional

HDLC or PPP PDU

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 293
 Frame Format CE — LER

Original Ethernet Frame

DA SA 8000 V HL TOS ….
DA SA 8000 V HL TOS …

VLAN Encapsulated Frame

DA SA 8100 Pbits Cbit VLAN ID Ethernet Frame

4 Byte 802.1q Header

11.10.128.204/32
• 2 Byte EtherType Field (8100) PE2 11.10.128.201/32
Core-1 Core-3 PE4
• 3 P bits GE2/1

• C bit
• 12 bit VID TDP/LDP TDP/LDP

CE2
CE1
MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 294
 Frame Format LER—LSR

VLAN Encapsulated Frame

DA SA 8100 Pbits Cbit VLAN ID Ethernet Frame

MPLS Labeled Packet

DA SA 8847 MPLS LSEs DA SA 8100 Pbits Cbit VLAN ID Ethernet Frame

LSE (Label Stack Entries)

• 20 Bit Label
11.10.128.204/32
• 3 Bit Experimental Field (Exp) 11.10.128.201/32
PE2
Core-1 Core-3
• 1 Bit Bottom of Stack Indicator (S) GE2/1 PE4

• 1 Byte TTL
TDP/LDP TDP/LDP

CE2
MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
CE1 295
 Frame Format LER—LSR (Cont.)
MPLS Labeled Packet

DA SA 8847 00037 0 FE 00012 1 02 DA SA …

• Tunnel Label Entry

- Label 55 (37)
- Exp = 0
11.10.128.204/32
-S=0 11.10.128.201/32
PE2
Core-1 Core-3
- TTL = FE GE2/1 PE4

• VC Label
- Label 18 (12) TDP/LDP TDP/LDP
- Exp = 0
- S=1 CE2
CE1
- TTL = 02
Detaled packet header explanation at:
http://www-tac.cisco.com/Teams/NSA/MPLS/EOMPLS/pac1.htm
MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 296
 Frame Format LSR—LSR

MPLS Labeled Packet

DA SA 8847 00088 0 FD 00012 1 02 DA SA …

• Tunnel Label Entry

- Label 136 (88) 11.10.128.204/32
- Exp/S = 0 PE2 11.10.128.201/32
Core-1 Core-3 PE4
- TTL = FD GE2/1

• VC Label
TDP/LDP
- Label 18 (12) TDP/LDP

- Exp/S = 1
CE2
- TTL = 02
CE1

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 297
 Frame Format LSR—LER

MPLS Labeled Packet

DA SA 8847 00012 1 01 DA SA …

•VC Label
- Label 18 (12)
- Exp/S = 1
11.10.128.204/32
- TTL = 01
PE2 11.10.128.201/32
Core-1 Core-3 PE4
GE2/1

TDP/LDP TDP/LDP

CE2
CE1

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 298
 Example: VPWS

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 299
 Point-to-Point
VLAN over MPLS

interface GigabitEthernet0/0/0/2.1 interface GigabitEthernet1/2.1

encapsulation dot1Q 1 encapsulation dot1Q 1
ip address 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0 ip address 192.168.1.2 255.255.255.0

MPLS or IP Core
CE 1 PE 1 CE 2
PE 2

interface GigabitEthernet8/2.1 interface GigabitEthernet2/2.1

encapsulation dot1Q 1 encapsulation dot1Q 1
xconnect 22.22.22.22 1 encapsulation mpls xconnect 5.5.5.5 1 encapsulation mpls

MPLS Overview © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 300
 Point-to-Point
Cell Relay over MPLS

interface ATM0/2/0/2.1 point-to-point interface ATM3/0.1 point-to-point

pvc 0/32 pvc 0/32
ipv4 address 192.168.2.1 255.255.255.0 ip address 192.168.2.2 255.255.255.0

MPLS or IP Core
CE 1 PE 1 CE 2
PE 2

interface ATM2/2 interface ATM3/0

pvc 0/32 l2transport pvc 0/32 l2transport
encapsulation aal0 encapsulation aal0
xconnect 22.22.22.22 2 encapsulation mpls xconnect 5.5.5.5 2 encapsulation mpls

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