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Is ME3600X the right equipment for my ENNI provider setup?

ruizmauricio39
Level 1
Level 1

We recently added a service provider that will provide us with Provider UNI's to each of our customer sites. They will carry traffic across there backbone and pop/remove their S-vlan at each site and each site has a unique S-vlan tag. All customer sites Metro circuits terminate at our main site and we need to install a device on our end that also pops/removes the S-vlan and forwards all C-vlan traffic to our core network on one port (trunked). Each site carrys vlans that are unique and do not repeat at any other site.

Our Site A >>> (UNI) >  Provider Network > (ENNI HANDOFF) >>> ME3600X >>> Our Core Switch

We would like to minimize the number of physical ports used from the ME3600x to the core switch ideally to one or two ports (port channel) and not use a physical port for each and every S-vlan we need to pop at the core side.

Can the ME3600x do the job or is there another cost efficient Cisco device that can achieve these results? Also any suggestions on how the ME3600X would be configured to achieve this. I have attached a diagram to enhance the explanation further.

This is my first post and hopefully I explained it to my best ability here. 

16 Replies 16

Philip D'Ath
VIP Alumni
VIP Alumni

What is your core switch?

3750X-48 (enhanced) would peer with our core network, but we are looking to put an ME3600X switch in between our provider and core switch to pop all the provider S-Vlans. Is ME the right equipment for this? 

If you have the 3750X-48-E, then I'm pretty sure it can do everything you need (and in hardware).  Do you really need an extra switch?

So to make sure we are understanding each other, I can use the 3750x and configure two ports. One port trunked receiving all the S-VLAN tags and then a second port that carries all C-VLANs that were deencapsulated within all the various S-VLANs? if so what config would achieve this on those ports and global commands too if needed? 

I actually read that link some time ago and thank you for providing it. Essentially our provider is terminating all of our branch sites and removing the S-Tag before the traffic hits the egress. On our core end however they are not doing the same. We need a hybrid of customer/provider piece of equipment that can receive on one port ingress all of the S-VLANs from the branch sites and on another port egress the C-VLANs in a trunk to our core. The  hyperlink you provided only shows one side (QinQ as a customer end or QinQ as a provider end). I am looking for an example where you are in between as half customer half provider on one switch. I have attached another picture to illustrate.

The ME3600X should be able to do this - I've never worked with EVCs, but the concept seems way more flexible than the "traditional" VLAN translation...

The type of VLAN mapping you need is called "selective QinQ" - we're using a C4500X for this (the ME3400E can do it too (it has to be E), but we needed 10G connectivity);  C4900M works too (and probably so do various Cat4K setups based on SUP6 and newer).

I actually read about selective qinq recently too.....but we are look for a push/pop scenario with enni's from our provider.

Adam Vitkovsky
Level 3
Level 3

Hi,

 

You said: Each site carries VLANs that are unique and do not repeat at any other site.

That means the main/HQ site will receive unique C-TAGs over the ENNI handoff so there’s absolutely no need for S-TAG.

So just ask the L2VPN provider to hand your VLANs (C-TAGs) over the ENNI with no S-TAG on them.

 

A good L2VPN Service-Provider should be able to manipulate up to two top VLAN tags (usually covers S-TAG and C-TAG) in any way according to the customer will (push/pop/swap).

However it might be that your ENNI is serviced from a dumb L2 aggregation switch in which case I understand why the SP might be willing to hand over your VLANs with an S-TAG on them.

The parameters and capabilities of the L2 service as well as the ENNI (Tag manipulation/MTU/QOS/SLA…) should be well defined in the service contract or the service description.

 

Anyways if it’s not possible to deliver the ENNI with just C-TAGs, then you're right and you need to buy a device that will do the S-TAG pop on your end.

ME3600 is legacy now and you should actually get a better price when buying its successor ASR920 (that’s the minimum device the SP should have when offering ENNI service).

Configuration is here:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/routers/asr920/configuration/guide/ce/b_ce_xe-313s-asr920-book/b_ce_xe-313s-asr920-book_chapter_01.html#ID-1384-00000013

 

adam

 

netconsultings.com

::carrier-class solutions for the telecommunications industry::

adam

We are looking at the ASR920 now....good price too. Is there anything that needs to be ordered with it to ensure the features that do push/pop are enabled? the model we are looking at is the ASR-920-12CZ-A

The only licenses I’m aware of are port licenses, so no the VLAN tag manipulation capability is in there from the get go.

The ASR920 is a full blown Carrier Ethernet router/switch.

 

adam

 

netconsultings.com

::carrier-class solutions for the telecommunications industry::

 

adam

Thank you Adam....we are waiting on equipment at this point to test further the suggestions here...

ASR920, not ME, for sure.  The ME3XXX is a switch that is adapted to work as an IOS-XE SP platform.  The ASR920 is an IOS-XE SP router that can do everything you need.  There is also the six-port versions with up to four of those being SFP+, depending on your license.  Might save you some money.

I wouldn't use a Catalyst, even if it could technically pull it off.

joshuacmoore
Level 1
Level 1

Yes absolutely. The EVC framework lets you do very granular tag manipulation. If you need support with this let me know and I would be glad to assist.