Method and apparatus for transporting ethernet services
View Patent ↗Frames of customer traffic may be encapsulated by adding Mac-in-Mac (MiM) encapsulation fields for transportation of the frames over a portion of provider network. The MiM encapsulated traffic may be further encapsulated using VPLS by adding VPLS encapsulation fields for transportation of the frames over another portion of the provider network. The MiM encapsulations use provider network MAC addresses which enables VPLS MAC learning to occur using provider network MAC address space. MiM tunnels are mapped to VPLS service instances which are assigned pseudowire tags for transportation over the VPLS portion of provider network. The MiM header is retained when the MiM encapsulated frames are transported over the VPLS portion of the provider network. As VPLS frames exit the core network, the VPLS encapsulation fields are removed to extract the original MiM encapsulated frames for further transportation over the MiM portion of the provider network.
1. A method of transporting Ethernet services over an MPLS network, the method comprising:
receiving, by a network element on the MPLS network, a provider-network-encapsulated client frame, the provider-network-encapsulated client frame being encapsulated according to IEEE 802.1ah and comprising a destination MAC address field, a source MAC address field, a B-Tag field, and an I-Tag field;
determining a Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) service instance on the MPLS network based on the B-Tag field of the provider-network-encapsulated client frame; and
further encapsulating the provider-network-encapsulated client frame with VPLS-encapsulation fields corresponding to the VPLS service instance for transportation on the MPLS network to provide a VPLS-encapsulated frame.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the VPLS-encapsulation fields comprise a tunnel tag having a value dependent on a value in the destination MAC address field.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the VPLS-encapsulation fields comprise a pseudowire tag having a value dependent on a value in the B-Tag field.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the client payload field comprises an Ethernet frame, the Ethernet frame comprising an Ethernet header and client data.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising forwarding the VPLS-encapsulated frame on the MPLS network.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the provider-network-encapsulated client frame is received from a provider network, the provider network being compliant with IEEE 802.1ah.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing VPLS MAC learning based on contents of source MAC address fields of received provider-network-encapsulated client frames.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, from the MPLS network by the network element, a VPLS-encapsulated frame; and
removing VPLS-encapsulation fields of the VPLS-encapsulated frame to provide a provider-network-encapsulated frame.
9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising forwarding the provider-network-encapsulated frame onto a provider network.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the provider network is compliant with IEEE 802.1ah.
11. A network element for transporting Ethernet services over an MPLS network, the network element comprising:
at least one port configured to receive a provider-network-encapsulated client frame, the provider-network-encapsulated client frame being encapsulated according to IEEE 802.1 ah and comprising a destination MAC address field, a source MAC address field, a B-Tag field, and an I-Tag field; and
at least one network processor configured:
to determine a Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) service instance on the MPLS network based on the B-Tag field of the provider-network-encapsulated client frame; and
to further encapsulate the provider-network-encapsulated client frame with VPLS-encapsulation fields corresponding to the VPLS service instance for transportation on the MPLS network to provide a VPLS-encapsulated frame.
12. The network element of claim 11 , wherein the at least one network processor is configured to encapsulate the provider-network-encapsulated client frame with VPLS-encapsulation fields comprising a tunnel tag having a value dependent on a value in the destination MAC address field.
13. The network element of claim 11 , wherein the at least one network processor is configured to encapsulate the provider-network-encapsulated client frame with VPLS-encapsulation fields comprising a pseudowire tag having a value dependent on a value in the B-Tag field.
14. The network element of claim 11 , wherein the client payload field comprises an Ethernet frame, the Ethernet frame comprising an Ethernet header and client data.
15. The network element of claim 11 , wherein the at least one network processor is configured to forward the VPLS-encapsulated frame on the MPLS network.
16. The network element of claim 11 , wherein the at least one port is configured to receive the provider-network-encapsulated client frame from a provider network, the provider network being compliant with IEEE 802.1ah.
17. The network element of claim 11 , wherein the at least one network processor is configured to perform VPLS MAC learning based on contents of source MAC address fields of received provider-network-encapsulated client frames.
18. The network element of claim 11 , further comprising:
at least one port configured to receive from the MPLS network a VPLS-encapsulated frame; and
at least one network processor configured to remove VPLS-encapsulation fields of the VPLS-encapsulated frame to provide a provider-network-encapsulated frame.
19. The network element of claim 18 , wherein the at least one network processor is configured to forward the provider-network-encapsulated frame onto a provider network.
20. The network element of claim 19 , wherein the at least one network processor is configured to forward the provider-network-encapsulated frame onto a provider network which is compliant with IEEE 802.1ah.