The MPLS-OPS Archive

[Karl Garcia <Karl.Garcia@cosinecom.com>]

Title: RE: MPLS VPNs interconnection

Hi Robert,

My read on the question, and perhaps Chrysostomos could clarify, was the interconnection
of VPN technologies.  He then went on to list several of those technologies and layer
2 MPLS was only one of a list of several.  You can see in my reply that I talked about
interconnection for the various VPN technologies today and support for layer 2 VPNS
in the near future. 

It seems to my understanding that L2 and L3 VPNS could easily interconnect at the SP
if there was a full router (e.g. a Virtual Router) acting as the connection point.  L2 VPNS are
either point to point (which is only marginally interesting and certainly not scalable)
or point to multi-point using Transparent LAN Services (TLS).  (Imagine the SP network acting
like a transparent bridge for the enterprise's L2 network).  In this case, since we
have a full virtual router at our service, the L3 connections would look like just another
endpoint.  Since this feature is not yet released, I am not going to make any claims,
but I see no reason that a Virtual Router at the SP could not interconnect L2 and L3 VPNs.

Think of it this way:  if a SP provided and maintained a dedicated router for each
customer, would they be able to perform this service ?  That, in essence, is what a
Virtual Router provides.

Of course this is all being hashed out in the forums previously mentioned, MEF, PPVPN and PWE3.

_________
Karl

Karl Garcia
Sr. Mrkt. Engr.
CoSine Communications, Inc.

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Raszuk [mailto:raszuk@cisco.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2001 1:56 PM
To: Karl Garcia
Cc: Chrysostomos Tziouvaras; mpls-ops@mplsrc.com
Subject: Re: MPLS VPNs interconnection

Hi Karl,

Thx for your add but could you reference any draft specifically talking
about interconnecting layer 2 VPNs with layer 3 VPNs for a service
provider ? I find such a possibility very interesting ... :).

On the other hand I just want to make sure it is clear what are we
talking about in this thread. Is this about variuos ways customer can
access VPNs ie via leased lines, IPSec, FR/ATM, ethernet, GRE or other
IP tunnel .... that is all very simple to do and in fact mutliple
vendors do it today (even Cisco world :).

Or is this about creating parallel VPNs for the same customer one Layer
2 & the other Layer 3 and interconnecting them in the SP space. I
thought that was the qestion. And if I got it right I still think this
is quite impossible.

Rgs,
R.

> Karl Garcia wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> Well, Robert is right that this is not possible in the Cisco world.
> :-)
>
> However, not naming any names, there is equipment available today
> (actually shipping !)
> that can interconnect BGP/MPLS VPNs (layer 3), IPSec VPNs, FR and ATM
> VPNs.  In Q1 of 2002, this equipment will also support layer 2 MPLS
> VPNs.
>
> And it is built for the SP; that means it is carrier-class and
> scalable.
>
> Hope this helps,
> _______
> Karl
>
> Karl Garcia
> Sr. Mrkt. Engr.
> CoSine Communications, Inc.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Raszuk [mailto:raszuk@cisco.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2001 4:10 AM
> To: Chrysostomos Tziouvaras
> Cc: mpls-ops@mplsrc.com
> Subject: Re: MPLS VPNs interconnection
>
> I don't think this is possible on the SP side.
>
> Of course all of the below provide a concept of hub & spoke so at the
> Hub side of your customer you could interconnect the VPNs as you like.
>
> R.
>
> > Chrysostomos Tziouvaras wrote:
> >
> > Dear all,
> > can anyone provide me pointers to documentation about the
> interconnection
> > of VPNs that employ different technologies, such as layer 2 MPLS
> VPNs,
> > layer 3 MPLS VPNs and traditional VPNs (eg FR or ATM VPNs).
> >
> > Regards
> > Chrysostomos
> >
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