Difference between MPLS,MPLS L2 VPN and MPLS L3 VPN?

[Martorossi]

What is the difference between MPLS, MPLS L2 VPN and MPLS L3 VPN?

[Nagendra Kumar Nainar]

Hi,

MPLS is the protocol used to establish Label switched Paths (LSP) that can be used as transport path between different border nodes.

L2VPN and L3VPN are MPLS services that can be instantiated between Border nodes over the LSP.

-Nagendra

[Martorossi]

What is the difference between MPLS L2 VPN and MPLS L3 VPN?

[Vinit Jain]

When we talk about L2VPN or L3VPN in context of MPLS, it means that the forwarding in the service provider core is based on MPLS label operations rather than IP lookup. With L2VPN, the service provider provides layer 2 services to the customers (FR, ATM, Ethernet, VLAN, point-to-multipoint, etc). With L3VPN, service provider provides layer 3 services i.e. based on IP or IPv6.

Hope this clarifies

Regards

Vinit

[Martorossi]

Why is it called MPLS L3 VPN as there is no VPN configuration in MPLS L3 VPN such as IKEv1 and IKEv2?

[Vinit Jain]

IKEv1/v2 are not the only methods to provide VPN solution. MPLS L3 VPN provides VPN solutions i.e. customers to maintain their private networks in the Service Provider cloud using VRF's. This way, customers cannot access the prefixes of other customers but only the prefixes / networks from remote sites.

Regards

Vinit

[Martorossi]

If you have Three Routers



R1(192.168.1.1)-----------------(192.168.1.2)R2(192.168.2.1)--------------(192.168.2.2)R3

Connected in this sequence and there is a routing protocol of Eigrp running on all three routers advertising all links hence R1 can ping R3 why would you establish a Site to Site VPN Connection Between R1(192.168.1.1) and R3(192.168.2.2) since R1 can already ping R3 due to EIGRP routing protocol.

[Amit Goyal]

1. What if these routers are far apart and taking a lease line to build EIGRP is very costly?

2. What if number of routers are more then 100 or so? Having a full mesh connectivity may not be feasible and very hard to manage.

2. What if you want a back service in case of failure of link between these routers?

Definitely you will go to your ISP and he will suggest you to take L3 VPN service. With L3VPN service in place, your ISP will take your routes, carry them in his cloud and deliver all routes to your remote router.

If you still want to run EIGRP between R1, R2 and R3, you can try to below solutions.

1. Build GRE over the routes exchanged via L3VPN. Run EIGRP on top of GRE.

2. Ask your ISP to provide L2VPN service by which you can have direct connectivity between your routers and run EIGRP over it.

[oscarsd33]

IKE is a security protocol to secure comunications between two devices, is commonly used in security related vpn (encrypted comunications), but thinks of MPLS L3VPN as a virtualized routing table, and mpls as the protocol stack to transport the information.. and the MPLS L2VPN, si a L2 tunnel, pseudowire.

MPLS it a protocol, and works with it friends LDP, for label distribution, RSVP as resource reservation for traffic engineering, MP-BGP to carry-out address families that only BGP can do..

hope this helps