MPLS L2 VPN

[subhojithalder198]

Hi,

What is L2 MPLS VPN & how to configure it end-to-end, What are the diffrence with L3 VPN

What is vrflite & what is the pros/cons of the same

Br/Subhojit                  

[daniel.dib]

In a MPLS L3 VPN the service provider carries the route for the customer. The network is not transparent meaning that layer 2 traffic such as broadcast and control plane traffic like CDP/LACP/STP etc is not carried for the customer.

There are different L2 VPNS such as Ethernet over MPLS (EoMPLS) and Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS).

EoMPLS is a point to point layer 2 service which does no MAC learning and it is transparent to the customer meaning that the customer can connect two switches together over the "cloud".

VPLS is a multipoint to multipoint technology. Essentially to the customer the provider network looks like a big switch. Several sites can be connected together and traffic here is also transparent.

Because these are layer 2 services the customer would be responsible themselves for providing routing in the network.

VRF lite is a form of L3 VPN but it's not running MPLS. Instead it uses VLANs to separate customer traffic. The cons are that it requires more configuration, is less scalable and needs peering in multiple VRFs compared to just peering in the VPNv4 address family.

Daniel Dib
CCIE #37149

Please rate helpful posts.

[Sandip Rathod]

Hi

MPLS L2VPN is nothing, but extending your L2 network over MPLS Network

For end user it is still L2, User still able to see MAC address of another user residing on another side of MPLS Network.

More details of L2vpn you can find on below document

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/net_mgmt/ip_solution_center/3.0/l2vpn/user/guide/L2vpn01.html

Regards,

Sandip

[kammodo21]

The explanations of the differences between the technoliges in the above posts answer what you need. But I wouldn't say what are the pros and cons of each technolgy. It all depends on the customer requirement. You cant say L3 VPN is better than L2 VPN , or vica versa. Not anymore than saying a car is better than a plane. It all depends what is needed to accomplish the task. With this in mind, all technoliges have their merit in some way.