"vpn exchange point"

Wed Jul 21 16:13:59 UTC 2010

Hello,

Do you know of any "vpn exchange point" implementations please? -I mean something like IXP but for mpls vpns

Let's say I'm an ISP that bought or merged with many small ISPs each with it's own AS# and would like to start offering mpls vpn services end to end
If there would be just a few autonomous systems involved I could do option-C and run a full mesh between the Inter-AS-RRs
Let's also assume there are more Inter-AS-RRs per AS -but still with small number of ASes the full mesh is doable
However if there's like dozen or more ASes  -peering with all the Inter-AS-RRs would be cumbersome
-that's where the vpn exchange point would be appropriate

I believe the exchange-point could work something like option-c

---- Inter-AS-RR-AS1---- Inter-AS-RR-AS2---- Inter-AS-RR-AS3----

-where the AS2 would be represented by a single node -the exchange point

Let's also assume the ASes have separate mpls links enabled between them
Than this exchange point is just about the control plane (no transit traffic -just inter-as-vpn-routes distribution)

It's like adding another layer of RRs to the picture
Let's say there are Intra-AS-RRs -that reflect routes between PE routers within a single AS
Let's say there are Inter-AS-RRs -that reflect routes between multiple ASes
(but if there are may ASes and we can't cope with the full mesh anymore)
We can ad Global-RRs --that will reflect routes between Inter-AS-RRs
                -these Global-RRs could be thought of as the exchange points

adam