Metro Ethernet, VPLS clarifications

Wed Feb 6 14:41:13 UTC 2013

>
> From my understanding M-Ethernet is a some kind of service. Standartized
> technology that allows to connect multiple different networks.  And it is
> independent from physical and datalink layers.
>

Metro Ethernet is a datalink (layer 2) protocol.  It also has physical
(layer 1) specifications though there are several kinds of physical medium
that can be used.  Most commonly its delivered over fiber (single or
multi-mode depending on distance from the last active element) or cat 5E/6
twisted pair.

> And nowadays which tecnology is the most used(VPLS or Metro)? What about
> MPLS? Sorry I'm a little confused. I really want to understand.
>

VPLS can be run across several different kinds of layer 1 & 2 technologies
and is independent of the underlying technology because it builds it pseudo
wires at layers 3 & 4. VPLS leverages technologies like Metro Ethernet and
MPLS to extend a business' Ethernet LAN (technically the broadcast domain)
to remote sites.  At the end of the day you can use several kinds of
tunneling technologies to provide VPLS, including GRE, MPLS, and L2TPv3.

Here are the main two RFCs:

http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4761
http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4762

>
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Abzal
>
>

-- 
Scott Helms
Vice President of Technology
ZCorum
(678) 507-5000
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http://twitter.com/kscotthelms
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