Metro Ethernet in DCI

[snarayanaraju]

Hello All - I am trying to understand the use of Metro Ethernet fundamentals and its usage as Datacenter Interconnect (DCI)

Question 1: Can i connect two Datacenters that are not located in Metropolitan areas using MetroEthernet? 

Question 2: How MetroEthernet differs from VPLS, EoMPLS, OTV 

Question 3: As a Customer, what dependencies are there for using MetroEthernet service from a service provider?

regards, Sairam

[Joseph W. Doherty]

#1 Yes

#2 MetroEthernet is more or less a generic term for a hand-off from SP to customer that appears as a ordinary Ethernet connection. VPLS, EoMPLS, OTV might be technologies used by the SP (sometime used by the customer) to provide an Ethernet like service external to a LAN.

#3 Cost (laugh). Actually not too many. Sometimes, MetroEthernet cannot pass all the low level frames supported by LAN Ethernet and/or you might need to ask some to be passed that by SP default would not be. Further, you may need to work out with your SP SLAs for various traffic types and QoS parameters.

[snarayanaraju]

Thankyou Joseph. When you say VPLS, OTV, EoMPLS are the technologies used by SPs for achieving MetroEthernet services i have questions arises.  

 I read for EoMPLS/VPLS/OTV, Nexus 9k/7k switches or ASR are needed. For Metro Ethernet i see a dedicated ME3400 series switches are available in Cisco. Doesnt it show MetroEthernet it itself a exclusive technique not related to EoMPLS/OTV?

regards/Sairam 

[Joseph W. Doherty · Accepted solution]

"Doesnt it show MetroEthernet it itself a exclusive technique not related to EoMPLS/OTV?"

No.

Again, the principle behind MetroEthernet, it's using "ordinary" Ethernet hand-offs for MAN/WAN connectivity. Under the covers, a SP might support such in different ways.

The MetroEthernet "featuress that a ME3400 might offer, possibly not found on "ordinary" LAN Ethernet switches, is support for QinQ or EoMPLS, etc. I.e. MetroEthernet features of interest to MetroEthernet providers.

I work in an Enterprise environment where we have our own Ethernet circuits that span towns and cites, which can further span across a state or even multiple states. We use "ordinary" LAN switches (generally L3), but the "Ethernet" links are generally our own dark fiber using 10 to 80 KM optics, or we run across our own optical transport network, which might be copper, SX or LX optics, or occasionally DWDM optics. To our network, all these links appear as L2 Ethernet.

[snarayanaraju]

Thank you