EoMPLS vs. VPLS (Part 1)

[vitute2006]

Hi Sirs:

Please answer each question separately:

1) What are the main differences between EoMPLS and VPLS?

2) What Cisco devices support EoMPLS? Only edge devices? Why?

3) What Cisco devices support VPLS? Only core devices? Why?

4) Using only EoMPLS, how can I build a star topology in the WAN for many sites? Is it possible? Please explain.

[mchin345]

VPLS evolved as a logical extension of Ethernet over MPLS (EoMPLS), which was developed to enable point-to-point Ethernet-based L2 VPN services.

Ethernet over MPLS (EoMPLS) is the transport of Ethernet frames across an MPLS core. It transports all frames received on a particular Ethernet or virtual LAN (VLAN) segment, regardless of the destination Media Access Control (MAC) information. It does not perform MAC learning or MAC look up for forwarding packets from the Ethernet interface.

VPLS can be defined as a group of Virtual Switch Instances (VSIs) that are interconnected using EoMPLS circuits in a full mesh topology to form a single, logical bridge. In concept, a VSI is similar to the bridging function found in IEEE 802.1q bridges in that a frame is switched based upon the destination MAC and membership in a Layer 2 VPN (a virtual LAN or VLAN). If the destination address is unknown, or is a broadcast or multicast address, the frame is flooded to all ports associated with the VSI, where a port, in the context of VPLS, is an EoMPLS VC pseudowire.

refer the following documents for detailed information.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/routers/ps368/prod_technical_reference09186a00800ae418.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/routers/ps368/products_white_paper09186a00801df1df.shtml

[John Curtis Gibson]

My question is also about the difference between EoMPLS and VPLS , more specifically,

when a VPLS network only consistes of 2 sites, 1 EoMPLS circuit, is the VPLS configuration identical to EoMPLS configuration? 

And I find the answer myself. The VPLS configuration creates a (integrated routing bridging) bridge in the PE router and adds the created pseudowire to the bridge; EoMPLS does not include such bridge.

specifically, VPLS:  

interface type number  

service instance si-id ethernet 

encapsulation dot1q vlan-id  

l2vpn vfi name 

vpn id id 

member ip-address [vc-id] encapsulation mpls  

bridge-domain bd-id 

member vfi vfi-name​

member interface-type-number service-instance service-id

EoMPLS:

 interface gigabitethernet slot / subslot / port [. subinterface]

encapsulation dot1q vlan-id 

interface pseudowire number 

encapsulation mpls

neighbor peer-address vcid-value

l2vpn xconnect context context-name 

member pseudowire interface-number 

member gigabitethernet interface-number 

So, VPLS uses a bridge to join the pseudowires and the physical interface, while EoMPLS uses a xconnect to join a single pseudowire and the physical interface.

So, the answer to my own question is , no, the configurations are different even when only 2 client sites with a VPLS network.