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Usage and applicability of BGP MPLS based Ethernet VPN
draft-ietf-bess-evpn-usage-01

The information below is for an old version of the document.
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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 8388.
Expired & archived
Authors Jorge Rabadan , Senad Palislamovic , Wim Henderickx , Florin Balus , Keyur Patel , Ali Sajassi
Last updated 2016-01-05 (Latest revision 2015-07-04)
Replaces draft-rp-l2vpn-evpn-usage
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draft-ietf-bess-evpn-usage-01
L2VPN Workgroup                                               J. Rabadan
Internet Draft                                           S. Palislamovic
                                                           W. Henderickx
Intended status: Informational                                  F. Balus
                                                          Alcatel-Lucent

J. Uttaro                                                       K. Patel
AT&T                                                          A. Sajassi
                                                                   Cisco

A. Isaac                                                                
T. Boyes                                                                
Bloomberg                                                               

Expires: January 5, 2016                                    July 4, 2015

         Usage and applicability of BGP MPLS based Ethernet VPN
                   draft-ietf-bess-evpn-usage-01.txt

Abstract

   This document discusses the usage and applicability of BGP MPLS based
   Ethernet VPN (EVPN) in a simple and fairly common deployment
   scenario. The different EVPN procedures will be explained on the
   example scenario, analyzing the benefits and trade-offs of each
   option. Along with [RFC7432], this document is intended to provide a
   simplified guide for the deployment of EVPN in Service Provider
   networks.

Status of this Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that
   other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-
   Drafts.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

 

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   The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on January 5, 2015.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2015 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors. All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
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   publication of this document. Please review these documents
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   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   2. Use-case scenario description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   3. Provisioning Model  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     3.1. Common provisioning tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
       3.1.1. Non-service specific parameters . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
       3.1.2. Service specific parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
     3.2. Service interface dependent provisioning tasks  . . . . . .  8
       3.2.1. VLAN-based service interface EVI  . . . . . . . . . . .  8
       3.2.2. VLAN-bundle service interface EVI . . . . . . . . . . .  9
       3.2.3. VLAN-aware bundling service interface EVI . . . . . . .  9
   4. BGP EVPN NLRI usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   5. MAC-based forwarding model use-case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     5.1. EVPN Network Startup procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     5.2. VLAN-based service procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
       5.2.1. Service startup procedures  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
       5.2.2. Packet walkthrough  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
     5.3. VLAN-bundle service procedures  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
       5.3.1. Service startup procedures  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
       5.3.2. Packet Walkthrough  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
     5.4. VLAN-aware bundling service procedures  . . . . . . . . . . 16
       5.4.1. Service startup procedures  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
       5.4.2. Packet Walkthrough  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   6. MPLS-based forwarding model use-case  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
 

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     6.1. Impact of MPLS-based forwarding on the EVPN network
          startup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
     6.2. Impact of MPLS-based forwarding on the VLAN-based service
          procedures  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
     6.3. Impact of MPLS-based forwarding on the VLAN-bundle 
          service procedures  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
     6.4. Impact of MPLS-based forwarding on the VLAN-aware service
          procedures  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
   7. Comparison between MAC-based and MPLS-based forwarding models . 21
   8. Traffic flow optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
     8.1. Control Plane Procedures  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
       8.1.1. MAC learning options  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
       8.1.2. Proxy-ARP/ND  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
       8.1.3. Unknown Unicast flooding suppression  . . . . . . . . . 23
       8.1.4. Optimization of Inter-subnet forwarding . . . . . . . . 24
     8.2. Packet Walkthrough Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
       8.2.1. Proxy-ARP example for CE2 to CE3 traffic  . . . . . . . 25
       8.2.2. Flood suppression example for CE1 to CE3 traffic  . . . 25
       8.2.3. Optimization of inter-subnet forwarding example for
              CE3 to CE2 traffic  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
   9. Conventions used in this document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
   10. Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
   11. IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
   12. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
     12.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
     12.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
   13. Acknowledgments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
   14. Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

 

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1. Introduction

   This document complements [RFC7432] by discussing the applicability
   of the technology in a simple and fairly common deployment scenario,
   which is described in section 2.

   After describing the topology of the use-case scenario and the
   characteristics of the service to be deployed, section 3 will
   describe the provisioning model, comparing the EVPN procedures with
   the provisioning tasks required for other VPN technologies, such as
   VPLS or IP-VPN.

   Once the provisioning model is analyzed, sections 4, 5 and 6 will
   describe the control plane and data plane procedures in the example
   scenario, for the two potential disposition/forwarding models:
   MAC-based and MPLS-based models. While both models can interoperate
   in the same network, each one has different trade-offs that are
   analyzed in section 7.

   Finally, EVPN provides some potential traffic flow optimization tools
   that are also described in section 8, in the context of the example
   scenario.

2. Use-case scenario description

   The following figure depicts the scenario that will be referenced
   throughout the rest of the document.

                            +--------------+
                            |              |
          +----+     +----+ |              | +----+   +----+
          | CE1|-----|    | |              | |    |---| CE3|
          +----+    /| PE1| |   IP/MPLS    | | PE3|   +----+
                   / +----+ |   Network    | +----+
                  /         |              |
                 /   +----+ |              |
          +----+/    |    | |              |
          | CE2|-----| PE2| |              |
          +----+     +----+ |              |
                            +--------------+

                     Figure 1 EVPN use-case scenario

   There are three PEs and three CEs considered in this example: PE1,
   PE2, PE3, as well as CE1, CE2 and CE3. Layer-2 traffic must be
   extended among the three CEs. The following service requirements are
   assumed in this scenario:

 

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   o Redundancy requirements: CE1 and CE3 are single-homed to PE1 and
     PE3 respectively. CE2 requires multi-homing connectivity to PE1 and
     PE2, not only for redundancy purposes, but also for adding more
     upstream/downstream connectivity bandwidth to/from the network. If
     CE2 has a single CE-VID (or a few CE-VIDs) the current VPLS
     multi-homing solutions (based on load-balancing per CE-VID or
     service) do not provide the optimized link utilization required in
     this example. Another redundancy requirement that must be met is
     fast convergence. E.g.: if the link between CE2 and PE1 goes down,
     a fast convergence mechanism must be supported so that PE3 can
     immediately send the traffic to PE2, irrespectively of the number
     of affected services and MAC addresses. EVPN provides the
     flow-based load-balancing multi-homing solution required in this
     scenario to optimize the upstream/downstream link utilization
     between CE2 and PE1-PE2. EVPN also provides a fast convergence
     solution so that PE3 can immediately send the traffic to PE2 upon
     failure on the link between CE2 and PE1.

   o Service interface requirements: service definition must be flexible
     in terms of CE-VID-to-broadcast-domain assignment and service
     contexts in the core. The following three services are required in
     this example:

     EVI100 - It will use VLAN-based service interfaces in the three CEs
     with a 1:1 mapping (VLAN-to-EVI). The CE-VIDs at the three CEs can
     be the same, e.g.: VID 100, or different at each CE, e.g.: VID 101
     in CE1, VID 102 in CE2 and VID 103 in CE3. A single broadcast
     domain needs to be created for EVI100 in any case; therefore CE-
     VIDs will require translation at the egress PEs if they are not
     consistent across the three CEs. The case when the same CE-VID is
     used across the three CEs for EVI100 is referred in [RFC7432] as
     the "Unique VLAN" EVPN case. This term will be used throughout this
     document too.

     EVI200 - It will use VLAN-bundle service interfaces in CE1, CE2 and
     CE3, based on an N:1 VLAN-to-EVI mapping. In this case, the service
     provider just needs to assign a pre-configured number of CE-VIDs on
     the ingress PE to EVI200, and send the customer frames with the
     original CE-VIDs. The Service Provider will build a single
     broadcast domain for the customer. The customer will be responsible
     for the CE-VID handling.

     EVI300 - It will use VLAN-aware bundling service interfaces in CE1,
     CE2 and CE3. At the ingress PE, an N:1 VLAN-to-EVI mapping will be
     done, however and as opposed to EVI200, a separate core broadcast
     domain is required per CE-VID. In addition to that, the CE-VIDs can
     be different (hence CE-VID translation is required). Note that,
     while the requirements stated for EVI100 and EVI200 might be met
 

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     with the current VPLS solutions, the VLAN-aware bundling service
     interfaces required by EVI300 are not supported by the current VPLS
     tools.

   NOTE: in section 3.2.1, only EVI100 is used as an example of
   VLAN-based service provisioning. In sections 5.2 and 6.2, 4k
   VLAN-based EVIs (EVI1 to EVI4k) are used so that the impact of MAC
   vs. MPLS disposition models in the control plane can be evaluated. In
   the same way, EVI200 and EVI300 will be described with a 4k:1 mapping
   (CE-VIDs-to-EVI mapping) in sections 5.3-4 and 6.3-4.

   o BUM (Broadcast, Unknown unicast, Multicast) optimization
     requirements: The solution must be able to support ingress
     replication, P2MP MPLS LSPs and MP2MP MPLS LSPs and the user must
     be able to decide what kind of provider tree will be used by each
     EVI service. For example, if we assume that EVI100 and EVI200 will
     not carry much BUM traffic, we can use ingress replication for
     those service instances. The benefit is that the core will not need
     to maintain any states for the multicast trees associated to EVI100
     and EVI200. On the contrary, if EVI300 is presumably carrying a
     significant amount of multicast traffic, P2MP MPLS LSPs or MP2MP
     LSPs can be used for this service. Note that ingress replication
     and P2MP LSPs are supported by VPLS solutions (see [VPLS-MCAST]),
     however VPLS solutions do not support MP2MP LSPs, since the source
     of the tree must be identified for the data plane MAC learning, and
     that identification is challenging when using MP2MP LSPs. Since
     EVPN uses the control plane for MAC learning, any type of provider
     multicast tree is supported in the core.

   As already outlined above, the current VPLS solutions, based on
   [RFC4761][RFC4762][RFC6074], cannot meet all the above set of
   requirements and therefore a new solution is needed. The rest of the
   document will describe how EVPN can be used to meet those service
   requirements and even optimize the network further by:

   o Providing the user with an option to reduce (and even suppress) the
     ARP-flooding.

   o Supporting ARP termination for inter-subnet forwarding

3. Provisioning Model

   One of the requirements stated in [RFC7209] is the ease of
   provisioning. BGP parameters and service context parameters should be
   auto-provisioned so that the addition of a new MAC-VRF to the EVI
   requires a minimum number of single-sided provisioning touches.
   However this is only possible in a limited number of cases. This
   section describes the provisioning tasks required for the services
 

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   described in section 2, i.e. EVI100 (VLAN-based service interfaces),
   EVI200 (VLAN-bundle service interfaces) and EVI300 (VLAN-aware
   bundling service interfaces).

3.1. Common provisioning tasks

   Regardless of the service interface type (VLAN-based, VLAN-bundle or
   VLAN-aware), the following sub-sections describe the parameters to be
   provisioned in the three PEs.

3.1.1. Non-service specific parameters

   The multi-homing function in EVPN requires the provisioning of
   certain parameters which are not service-specific and that are shared
   by all the MAC-VRFs in the node using the multi-homing capabilities.
   In our use-case, these parameters are only provisioned in PE1 and
   PE2, and are listed below:

   o Ethernet Segment Identifier (ESI): only the ESI associated to CE2
     needs to be considered in our example. Single-homed CEs such as CE1
     and CE3 do not require the provisioning of an ESI (the ESI will be
     coded as zero in the BGP NLRIs). In our example, a LAG is used
     between CE2 and PE1-PE2 (since all-active multi-homing is a
     requirement) therefore the ESI can be auto-derived from the LACP
     information as described in [RFC7432]. Note that the ESI MUST be
     unique across all the PEs in the network, therefore the
     auto-provisioning of the ESI is only recommended in case the CEs
     are managed by the Service Provider. Otherwise the ESI should be
     manually provisioned (type 0 as in [RFC7432]) in order to avoid
     potential conflicts.

   o ES-Import Route Target (ES-Import RT): this is the RT that will be
     sent by PE1 and PE2, along with the ES route. Regardless of how the
     ESI is provisioned in PE1 and PE2, the ES-Import RT must always be
     auto-derived from the 6-byte MAC address portion of the ESI value.

   o Ethernet Segment Route Distinguisher (ES RD): this is the RD to be
     encoded in the ES route and Ethernet Auto-Discovery (A-D) route to
     be sent by PE1 and PE2 for the CE2 ESI. This RD should always be
     auto-derived from the PE IP address, as described in [RFC7432].

   o Multi-homing type: the user must be able to provision the
     multi-homing type to be used in the network. In our use-case, the
     multi-homing type will be set to all-active for the CE2 ESI. This
     piece of information is encoded in the ESI Label extended community
     flags and sent by PE1 and PE2 along with the Ethernet A-D route for
     the CE2 ESI.

 

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   In our use-case, besides the above parameters, the same LACP
   parameters will be configured in PE1 and PE2 for the ESI, so that CE2
   can send different flows to PE1 and PE2 for the same CE-VID as though
   they were forming a single system from the CE2 perspective.

3.1.2. Service specific parameters

   The following parameters must be provisioned in PE1, PE2 and PE3 per
   EVI service:

   o EVI identifier: global identifier per EVI that is shared by all the
     PEs part of the EVI, i.e. PE1, PE2 and PE3 will be provisioned with
     EVI100, 200 and 300. The EVI identifier can be associated to (or be
     the same value as) the EVI default Ethernet Tag (4-byte default
     broadcast domain identifier for the EVI). The Ethernet Tag is
     different from zero in the EVPN BGP routes only if the service
     interface type (of the source PE) is VLAN-aware.

   o EVI Route Distinguisher (EVI RD): This RD is a unique value across
     all the MAC-VRFs in a PE. Auto-derivation of this RD might be
     possible depending on the service interface type being used in the
     EVI. Next section discusses the specifics of each service interface
     type.

   o EVI Route Target(s) (EVI RT): one or more RTs can be provisioned
     per MAC-VRF. The RT(s) imported and exported can be equal or
     different, just as the RT(s) in IP-VPNs. Auto-derivation of this
     RT(s) might be possible depending on the service interface type
     being used in the EVI. Next section discusses the specifics of each
     service interface type.

   o CE-VID and port/LAG binding to EVI identifier or Ethernet Tag: see
     section 3.2.

3.2. Service interface dependent provisioning tasks

   Depending on the service interface type being used in the EVI, a
   specific CE-VID binding provisioning must be specified.

3.2.1. VLAN-based service interface EVI

   In our use-case, EVI100 is a VLAN-based service interface EVI.

   EVI100 can be a "unique-VLAN" EVPN if the CE-VID being used for this
   service in CE1, CE2 and CE3 is equal, e.g. VID 100. In that case, the
   VID 100 binding must be provisioned in PE1, PE2 and PE3 for EVI100
   and the associated port or LAG. The MAC-VRF RD and RT can be auto-
   derived from the CE-VID:
 

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   o The auto-derived MAC-VRF RD will be a Type 1 RD, as recommended in
     [RFC7432], and it will be comprised of [PE-IP]:[zero-padded-VID];
     where PE-IP is the IP address of the PE (a loopback address) and
     [zero-padded-VID] is a 2-byte value where the low order 12 bits are
     the VID (VID 100 in our example) and the high order 4 bits are
     zero.

   o The auto-derived MAC-VRF RT will be composed of [AS]:[zero-padded-
     VID]; where AS is the Autonomous System that the PE belongs to and
     [zero-padded-VID] is a 4-byte value where the low order 12 bits are
     the VID (VID 100 in our example) and the high order 20 bits are
     zero. Note that auto-deriving the RT implies supporting a basic
     any-to-any topology in the EVI and using the same import and export
     RT in the EVI.

   If EVI100 is not a "unique-VLAN" EVPN, each individual CE-VID must be
   configured in each PE, and MAC-VRF RDs and RTs cannot be auto-
   derived, hence they must be provisioned by the user.

3.2.2. VLAN-bundle service interface EVI

   Assuming EVI200 is a VLAN-bundle service interface EVI, and VIDs
   200-250 are assigned to EVI200, the CE-VID bundle 200-250 must be
   provisioned on PE1, PE2 and PE3. Note that this model does not allow
   CE-VID translation and the CEs must use the same CE-VIDs for EVI200.
   No auto-derived EVI RDs or EVI RTs are possible.

3.2.3. VLAN-aware bundling service interface EVI

   If EVI300 is a VLAN-aware bundling service interface EVI, CE-VID
   binding to EVI300 does not have to match on the three PEs (only on
   PE1 and PE2, since they are part of the same ES). E.g.: PE1 and PE2
   CE-VID binding to EVI300 can be set to the range 300-310 and PE3 to
   321-330. Note that each individual CE-VID will be assigned to a core
   broadcast domain, i.e. Ethernet Tag, which will be encoded in the BGP
   EVPN routes.

   Therefore, besides the CE-VID bundle range bound to EVI300 in each
   PE, associations between each individual CE-VID and the EVPN Ethernet
   Tag must be provisioned by the user. No auto-derived EVI RDs/RTs are
   possible.

4. BGP EVPN NLRI usage

   [RFC7432] defines four different types of routes and four different
   extended communities advertised along with the different routes.
   However not all the PEs in a network must generate and process all
   the different routes and extended communities. The following table
 

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   shows the routes that must be exported and imported in the use-case
   described in this document. "Export", in this context, means that the
   PE must be capable of generating and exporting a given route,
   assuming there are no BGP policies to prevent it. In the same way,
   "Import" means the PE must be capable of importing and processing a
   given route, assuming the right RTs and policies. "N/A" means neither
   import nor export actions are required.

   +-------------------+---------------+---------------+
   | BGP EVPN routes   | PE1-PE2       | PE3           |
   +-------------------+---------------+---------------+
   | ES                | Export/import | N/A           |
   | A-D per ESI       | Export/import | Import        |
   | A-D per EVI       | Export/import | Import        |
   | MAC               | Export/import | Export/import |
   | Inclusive mcast   | Export/import | Export/import |
   +-------------------+---------------+---------------+

   PE3 is only required to export MAC and Inclusive multicast routes and
   be able to import and process A-D routes, as well as MAC and
   Inclusive multicast routes. If PE3 did not support importing and
   processing A-D routes per ESI and per EVI, fast convergence and
   aliasing functions (respectively) would not be possible in this
   use-case.

5. MAC-based forwarding model use-case

   This section describes how the BGP EVPN routes are exported and
   imported by the PEs in our use-case, as well as how traffic is
   forwarded assuming that PE1, PE2 and PE3 support a MAC-based
   forwarding model. In order to compare the control and data plane
   impact in the two forwarding models (MAC-based and MPLS-based) and
   different service types, we will assume that CE1, CE2 and CE3 need to
   exchange traffic for up to 4k CE-VIDs.

5.1. EVPN Network Startup procedures

   Before any EVI is provisioned in the network, the following
   procedures are required:

   o Infrastructure setup: the proper MPLS infrastructure must be setup
     among PE1, PE2 and PE3 so that the EVPN services can make use of
     P2P, P2MP and/or MP2MP LSPs. In addition to the MPLS transport, PE1
     and PE2 must be properly configured with the same LACP
     configuration to CE2. Details are provided in [RFC7432]. Once the
     LAG is properly setup, the ESI for the CE2 Ethernet Segment, e.g.
     ESI12, can be auto-generated by PE1 and PE2 from the LACP
     information exchanged with CE2 (ESI type 1), as discussed in
 

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     section 3.1. Alternatively, the ESI can also be manually
     provisioned on PE1 and PE2 (ESI type 0). PE1 and PE2 will auto-
     configure a BGP policy that will import any ES route matching the
     auto-derived ES-import RT for ESI12.

   o Ethernet Segment route exchange and DF election: PE1 and PE2 will
     advertise a BGP Ethernet Segment route for ESI12, where the ESI RD
     and ES-Import RT will be auto-generated as discussed in section
     3.1.1. PE1 and PE2 will import the ES routes of each other and will
     run the DF election algorithm for any existing EVI (if any, at this
     point). PE3 will simply discard the route. Note that the DF
     election algorithm can support service carving, so that the
     downstream BUM traffic from the network to CE2 can be load-balanced
     across PE1 and PE2 on a per-service basis.

   At the end of this process, the network infrastructure is ready to
   start deploying EVPN services. PE1 and PE2 are aware of the existence
   of a shared Ethernet Segment, i.e. ESI12.

5.2. VLAN-based service procedures

   Assuming that the EVPN network must carry traffic among CE1, CE2 and
   CE3 for up to 4k CE-VIDs, the Service Provider can decide to
   implement VLAN-based service interface EVIs to accomplish it. In this
   case, each CE-VID will be individually mapped to a different EVI.
   While this means a total number of 4k MAC-VRFs is required per PE,
   the advantages of this approach are the auto-provisioning of most of
   the service parameters if no VLAN translation is needed (see section
   3.2.1) and great control over each individual customer broadcast
   domain. We assume in this section that the range of EVIs from 1 to 4k
   is provisioned in the network.

5.2.1. Service startup procedures

   As soon as the EVIs are created in PE1, PE2 and PE3, the following
   control plane actions are carried out:

   o Flooding tree setup per EVI (4k routes): Each PE will send one
     Inclusive Multicast Ethernet Tag route per EVI (up to 4k routes per
     PE) so that the flooding tree per EVI can be setup. Note that
     ingress replication, P2MP LSPs or MP2MP LSPs can optionally be
     signaled in the PMSI Tunnel attribute and the corresponding tree be
     created.

   o Ethernet A-D routes per ESI (a set of routes for ESI12): A set of
     A-D routes with a list of 4k RTs (one per EVI) for ESI12 will be
     issued from PE1 and PE2 (it has to be a set of routes so that the
     total number of RTs can be conveyed). As per [RFC7432], each
 

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     Ethernet A-D route per ESI is differentiated from the other routes
     in the set by a different Route Distinguisher (ES RD. This set will
     also include ESI Label extended communities with the active-standby
     flag set to zero (all-active multi-homing type) and an ESI Label
     different from zero (used for split-horizon functions). These
     routes will be imported by the three PEs, since the RTs match the
     EVI RTs locally configured. The A-D routes per ESI will be used for
     fast convergence and split-horizon functions, as discussed in
     [RFC7432].

   o Ethernet A-D routes per EVI (4k routes): An A-D route per EVI will
     be sent by PE1 and PE2 for ESI12. Each individual route includes
     the corresponding EVI RT and an MPLS label to be used by PE3 for
     the aliasing function. These routes will be imported by the three
     PEs.

5.2.2. Packet walkthrough

   Once the services are setup, the traffic can start flowing. Assuming
   there are no MAC addresses learnt yet and that MAC learning at the
   access is performed in the data plane in our use-case, this is the
   process followed upon receiving frames from each CE (example for
   EVI1).

   (1) BUM frame example from CE1:

   a) An ARP-request with CE-VID=1 is issued from source MAC CE1-MAC
      (MAC address coming from CE1 or from a device connected to CE1) to
      find the MAC address of CE3-IP.

   b) Based on the CE-VID, the frame is identified to be forwarded in
      the MAC-VRF-1 (EVI1) context. A source MAC lookup is done in the
      MAC FIB and the sender's CE1-IP in the proxy-ARP table within the
      MAC-VRF-1 (EVI1) context. If CE1-MAC/CE1-IP are unknown in both
      tables, three actions are carried out (assuming the source MAC is
      accepted by PE1): (1) a forwarding state is added for CE1-MAC
      associated to the corresponding port and CE-VID, (2) the ARP-
      request is snooped and the tuple CE1-MAC/CE1-IP is added to the
      proxy-ARP table and (3) a BGP MAC advertisement route is triggered
      from PE1 containing the EVI1 RD and RT, ESI=0, Ethernet-Tag=0 and
      CE1-MAC/CE1-IP along with an MPLS label assigned to MAC-VRF-1 from
      the PE1 label space. Note that depending on the implementation,
      the MAC FIB and proxy-ARP learning processes can independently
      send two BGP MAC advertisements instead of one (one containing
      only the CE1-MAC and another one containing CE1-MAC/CE1-IP). 

      Since we assume a MAC forwarding model, a label per MAC-VRF is
      normally allocated and signaled by the three PEs for MAC
 

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      advertisement routes. Based on the RT, the route is imported by
      PE2 and PE3 and the forwarding state plus ARP entry are added to
      their MAC-VRF-1 context. From this moment on, any ARP request from
      CE2 or CE3 destined to CE1-IP, can be directly replied by PE1, PE2
      or PE3 and ARP flooding for CE1-IP is not needed in the core.

   c) Since the ARP frame is a broadcast frame, it is forwarded by PE1
      using the Inclusive multicast tree for EVI1 (CE-VID=1 should be
      kept if translation is required). Depending on the type of tree,
      the label stack may vary. E.g. assuming ingress replication, the
      packet is replicated to PE2 and PE3 with the downstream allocated
      labels and the P2P LSP transport labels. No other labels are added
      to the stack.

   d) Assuming PE1 is the DF for EVI1 on ESI12, the frame is locally
      replicated to CE2.

   e) The MPLS-encapsulated frame gets to PE2 and PE3. Since PE2 is non-
      DF for EVI1 on ESI12, and there is no other CE connected to PE2,
      the frame is discarded. At PE3, the frame is de-encapsulated, CE-
      VID translated if needed and replicated to CE3.

   Any other type of BUM frame from CE1 would follow the same
   procedures. BUM frames from CE3 would follow the same procedures too.

   (2) BUM frame example from CE2:

   a) An ARP-request with CE-VID=1 is issued from source MAC CE2-MAC to
      find the MAC address of CE3-IP.

   b) CE2 will hash the frame and will forward it to e.g. PE2. Based on
      the CE-VID, the frame is identified to be forwarded in the EVI1
      context. A source MAC lookup is done in the MAC FIB and the
      sender's CE2-IP in the proxy-ARP table within the MAC-VRF-1
      context. If both are unknown, three actions are carried out
      (assuming the source MAC is accepted by PE2): (1) a forwarding
      state is added for CE2-MAC associated to the corresponding LAG/ESI
      and CE-VID, (2) the ARP-request is snooped and the tuple CE2-
      MAC/CE2-IP is added to the proxy-ARP table and (3) a BGP MAC
      advertisement route is triggered from PE2 containing the EVI1 RD
      and RT, ESI=12, Ethernet-Tag=0 and CE2-MAC/CE2-IP along with an
      MPLS label assigned from the PE2 label space (one label per MAC-
      VRF). Again, depending on the implementation, the MAC FIB and
      proxy-ARP learning processes can independently send two BGP MAC
      advertisements instead of one.

      Note that, since PE3 is not part of ESI12, it will install a
      forwarding state for CE2-MAC as long as the A-D routes for ESI12
 

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      are also active on PE3. On the contrary, PE1 is part of ESI12,
      therefore PE1 will not modify the forwarding state for CE2-MAC if
      it has previously learnt CE2-MAC locally attached to ESI12.
      Otherwise it will add forwarding state for CE2-MAC associated to
      the local ESI12 port.

   c) Assuming PE2 does not have the ARP information for CE3-IP yet, and
      since the ARP is a broadcast frame and PE2 the non-DF for EVI1 on
      ESI12, the frame is forwarded by PE2 in the Inclusive multicast
      tree for EVI1, adding the ESI label for ESI12 at the bottom of the
      stack. The ESI label has been previously allocated and signaled by
      the A-D routes for ESI12. Note that, as per [RFC7432], if the
      result of the CE2 hashing is different and the frame sent to PE1,
      PE1 SHOULD add the ESI label too (PE1 is the DF for EVI1 on
      ESI12).

   d) The MPLS-encapsulated frame gets to PE1 and PE3. PE1
      de-encapsulate the Inclusive multicast tree label(s) and based on
      the ESI label at the bottom of the stack, it decides to not
      forward the frame to the ESI12. It will pop the ESI label and will
      replicate it to CE1 though, since CE1 is not part of the ESI
      identified by the ESI label. At PE3, the Inclusive multicast tree
      label is popped and the frame forwarded to CE3. If a P2MP LSP is
      used as Inclusive multicast tree for EVI1, PE3 will find an ESI
      label after popping the P2MP LSP label. The ESI label will simply
      be ignored and popped, since CE3 is not part of ESI12.

   (3) Unicast frame example from CE3 to CE1:

   a) A unicast frame with CE-VID=1 is issued from source MAC CE3-MAC
      and destination MAC CE1-MAC (we assume PE3 has previously resolved
      an ARP request from CE3 to find the MAC of CE1-IP, and has added
      CE3-MAC/CE3-IP to its proxy-ARP table).

   b) Based on the CE-VID, the frame is identified to be forwarded in
      the EVI1 context. A source MAC lookup is done in the MAC FIB
      within the MAC-VRF-1 context and this time, since we assume CE3-
      MAC is known, no further actions are carried out as a result of
      the source lookup. A destination MAC lookup is performed next and
      the label stack associated to the MAC CE1-MAC is found (including
      the label associated to MAC-VRF-1 in PE1 and the P2P LSP label to
      get to PE1). The unicast frame is then encapsulated and forwarded
      to PE1.

   c) At PE1, the packet is identified to be part of EVI1 and a
      destination MAC lookup is performed in the MAC-VRF-1 context. The
      labels are popped and the frame forwarded to CE1 with CE-VID=1. 

 

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      Unicast frames from CE1 to CE3 or from CE2 to CE3 follow the same
      procedures described above.

   (4) Unicast frame example from CE3 to CE2:

   a) A unicast frame with CE-VID=1 is issued from source MAC CE3-MAC
      and destination MAC CE2-MAC (we assume PE3 has previously resolved
      an ARP request from CE3 to find the MAC of CE2-IP).

   b) Based on the CE-VID, the frame is identified to be forwarded in
      the MAC-VRF-1 context. We assume CE3-MAC is known. A destination
      MAC lookup is performed next and PE3 finds CE2-MAC associated to
      PE2 on ESI12, an Ethernet Segment for which PE3 has two active A-D
      routes per ESI (from PE1 and PE2) and two active A-D routes for
      EVI1 (from PE1 and PE2). Based on a hashing function for the
      frame, PE3 may decide to forward the frame using the label stack
      associated to PE2 (label received from the MAC advertisement
      route) or the label stack associated to PE1 (label received from
      the A-D route per EVI for EVI1). Either way, the frame is
      encapsulated and sent to the remote PE.

   c) At PE2 (or PE1), the packet is identified to be part of EVI1 based
      on the bottom label, and a destination MAC lookup is performed. At
      either PE (PE2 or PE1), the FIB lookup yields a local ESI12 port
      to which the frame is sent.

   Unicast frames from CE1 to CE2 follow the same procedures. Aliasing
   is possible in this case too, since ESI12 is local to PE1 and load
   balancing through PE1 and PE2 may happen.

5.3. VLAN-bundle service procedures

   Instead of using VLAN-based interfaces, the Service Provider can
   choose to implement VLAN-bundle interfaces to carry the traffic for
   the 4k CE-VIDs among CE1, CE2 and CE3. If that is the case, the 4k
   CE-VIDs can be mapped to the same EVI, e.g. EVI200, at each PE. The
   main advantage of this approach is the low control plane overhead
   (reduced number of routes and labels) and easiness of provisioning,
   at the expense of no control over the customer broadcast domains,
   i.e. a single inclusive multicast tree for all the CE-VIDs and no CE-
   VID translation in the Provider network.

5.3.1. Service startup procedures

   As soon as the EVI200 is created in PE1, PE2 and PE3, the following
   control plane actions are carried out:

   o Flooding tree setup per EVI (one route): Each PE will send one
 

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      Inclusive Multicast Ethernet Tag route per EVI (hence only one
      route per PE) so that the flooding tree per EVI can be setup. Note
      that ingress replication, P2MP LSPs or MP2MP LSPs can optionally
      be signaled in the PMSI Tunnel attribute and the corresponding
      tree be created. 

   o Ethernet A-D routes per ESI (one route for ESI12): A single A-D
      route for ESI12 will be issued from PE1 and PE2. This route will
      include a single RT (RT for EVI200), an ESI Label extended
      community with the active-standby flag set to zero (all-active
      multi-homing type) and an ESI Label different from zero (used by
      the non-DF for split-horizon functions). This route will be
      imported by the three PEs, since the RT matches the EVI200 RT
      locally configured. The A-D routes per ESI will be used for fast
      convergence and split-horizon functions, as described in
      [RFC7432].

   o Ethernet A-D routes per EVI (one route): An A-D route (EVI200) will
      be sent by PE1 and PE2 for ESI12. This route includes the EVI200
      RT and an MPLS label to be used by PE3 for the aliasing function.
      This route will be imported by the three PEs.

5.3.2. Packet Walkthrough

   The packet walkthrough for the VLAN-bundle case is similar to the one
   described for EVI1 in the VLAN-based case except for the way the
   CE-VID is handled by the ingress PE and the egress PE:

   o No VLAN translation is allowed and the CE-VIDs are kept untouched
      from CE to CE, i.e. the ingress CE-VID MUST be kept at the
      imposition PE and at the disposition PE.

   o The frame is identified to be forwarded in the MAC-VRF-200 context
      as long as its CE-VID belongs to the VLAN-bundle defined in the
      PE1/PE2/PE3 port to CE1/CE2/CE3. Our example is a special VLAN-
      bundle case, since the entire CE-VID range is defined in the
      ports, therefore any CE-VID would be part of EVI200. 

   Please refer to section 5.2.2 for more information about the control
   plane and forwarding plane interaction for BUM and unicast traffic
   from the different CEs.

5.4. VLAN-aware bundling service procedures

   The last potential service type analyzed in this document is
   VLAN-aware bundling. When this type of service interface is used to
   carry the 4k CE-VIDs among CE1, CE2 and CE3, all the CE-VIDs will be
   mapped to the same EVI, e.g. EVI300. The difference, compared to the
 

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   VLAN-bundle service type in the previous section, is that each
   incoming CE-VID will also be mapped to a different "normalized"
   Ethernet-Tag in addition to EVI300. If no translation is required,
   the Ethernet-tag will match the CE-VID. Otherwise a translation
   between CE-VID and Ethernet-tag will be needed at the imposition PE
   and at the disposition PE. The main advantage of this approach is the
   ability to control customer broadcast domains while providing a
   single EVI to the customer.

5.4.1. Service startup procedures

   As soon as the EVI300 is created in PE1, PE2 and PE3, the following
   control plane actions are carried out:

   o Flooding tree setup per EVI per Ethernet-Tag (4k routes): Each PE
      will send one Inclusive Multicast Ethernet Tag route per EVI and
      per Ethernet-Tag (hence 4k routes per PE) so that the flooding
      tree per customer broadcast domain can be setup. Note that ingress
      replication, P2MP LSPs or MP2MP LSPs can optionally be signaled in
      the PMSI Tunnel attribute and the corresponding tree be created.
      In the described use-case, since all the CE-VIDs and Ethernet-Tags
      are defined on the three PEs, multicast tree aggregation might
      make sense in order to save forwarding states.

   o Ethernet A-D routes per ESI (one route for ESI12): A single A-D
      route for ESI12 will be issued from PE1 and PE2. This route will
      include a single RT (RT for EVI300), an ESI Label extended
      community with the active-standby flag set to zero (all-active
      multi-homing type) and an ESI Label different than zero (used by
      the non-DF for split-horizon functions). This route will be
      imported by the three PEs, since the RT matches the EVI300 RT
      locally configured. The A-D routes per ESI will be used for fast
      convergence and split-horizon functions, as described in
      [RFC7432].

   o Ethernet A-D routes per EVI (one route): An A-D route (EVI300) will
      be sent by PE1 and PE2 for ESI12. This route includes the EVI300
      RT and an MPLS label to be used by PE3 for the aliasing function.
      This route will be imported by the three PEs.

5.4.2. Packet Walkthrough

   The packet walkthrough for the VLAN-aware case is similar to the one
   described before. Compared to the other two cases, VLAN-aware
   services allow for CE-VID translation and for an N:1 CE-VID to EVI
   mapping. Both things are not supported at once in either of the two
   other service interfaces. Note that this model requires qualified
   learning on the MAC FIBs. Some differences compared to the packet
 

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   walkthrough described in section 5.2.2 are:

   o At the ingress PE, the frames are identified to be forwarded in the
      EVI300 context as long as their CE-VID belong to the range defined
      in the PE port to the CE. In addition to it, CE-VID=x is mapped to
      a "normalized" Ethernet-Tag=y at the MAC-VRF-300 (where x and y
      might be equal if no translation is needed). Qualified learning is
      now required (a different FIB space is allocated within MAC-VRF-
      300 for each Ethernet-Tag). Potentially the same MAC could be
      learnt in two different Ethernet-Tag bridge domains of the same
      MAC-VRF.

   o Any new locally learnt MAC on the MAC-VRF-300/Ethernet-Tag=y
      interface is advertised by the ingress PE in a MAC advertisement
      route, using now the Ethernet-Tag field (Ethernet-Tag=y) so that
      the remote PE learns the MAC associated to the MAC-VRF-
      300/Ethernet-Tag=y FIB. Note that the Ethernet-Tag field is not
      used in advertisements of MACs learnt on VLAN-based or VLAN-bundle
      service interfaces.

   o At the ingress PE, BUM frames are sent to the corresponding
      flooding tree for the particular Ethernet-Tag they are mapped to.
      Each individual Ethernet-Tag can have a different flooding tree
      within the same EVI300. For instance, Ethernet-Tag=y can use
      ingress replication to get to the remote PEs whereas Ethernet-
      Tag=z can use a p2mp LSP.

   o At the egress PE, Ethernet-Tag=y, for a given broadcast domain
      within MAC-VRF-300, can be translated to egress CE-VID=x. That is
      not possible for VLAN-bundle interfaces. It is possible for VLAN-
      based interfaces, but it requires a separate EVI per CE-VID.

6. MPLS-based forwarding model use-case

   EVPN supports an alternative forwarding model, usually referred to as
   MPLS-based forwarding or disposition model as opposed to the
   MAC-based forwarding or disposition model described in section 5.
   Using MPLS-based forwarding model instead of MAC-based model might
   have an impact on:

   o The number of forwarding states required

   o The FIB where the forwarding states are handled: MAC FIB or MPLS
      LFIB.

   The MPLS-based forwarding model avoids the destination MAC lookup at
   the egress PE MAC FIB, at the expense of increasing the number of
   next-hop forwarding states at the egress MPLS LFIB. This also has an
 

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   impact on the control plane and the label allocation model, since an
   MPLS-based disposition PE MUST send as many routes and labels as
   required next-hops in the egress MAC-VRF. This concept is equivalent
   to the forwarding models supported in IP-VPNs at the egress PE, where
   an IP lookup in the IP-VPN FIB might be necessary or not depending on
   the available next-hop forwarding states in the LFIB.

   The following sub-sections highlight the impact on the control and
   data plane procedures described in section 5 when and MPLS-based
   forwarding model is used.

   Note that both forwarding models are compatible and interoperable in
   the same network. The implementation of either model in each PE is a
   local decision to the PE node.

6.1. Impact of MPLS-based forwarding on the EVPN network startup

   The MPLS-based forwarding model has no impact on the procedures
   explained in section 5.1.

6.2. Impact of MPLS-based forwarding on the VLAN-based service
   procedures

   Compared to the MAC-based forwarding model, the MPLS-based forwarding
   model has no impact in terms of number of routes, when all the
   service interfaces are VLAN-based. The differences for the use-case
   described in this document are summarized in the following list:

   o Flooding tree setup per EVI (4k routes per PE): no impact compared
      to the MAC-based model.

   o Ethernet A-D routes per ESI (one set of routes for ESI12 per PE):
      no impact compared to the MAC-based model.

   o Ethernet A-D routes per EVI (4k routes per PE/ESI): no impact
      compared to the MAC-based model.

   o MAC-advertisement routes: instead of allocating and advertising the
      same MPLS label for all the new MACs locally learnt on the same
      MAC-VRF, a different label MUST be advertised per CE next-hop or
      MAC so that no MAC FIB lookup is needed at the egress PE. In
      general, this means that a different label at least per CE must be
      advertised, although the PE can decide to implement a label per
      MAC if more granularity (hence less scalability) is required in
      terms of forwarding states. E.g. if CE2 sends traffic from two
      different MACs to PE1, CE2-MAC1 and CE2-MAC2, the same MPLS
      label=x can be re-used for both MAC advertisements since they both
      share the same source ESI12. It is up to the PE1 implementation to
 

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      use a different label per individual MAC within the same ES
      Segment (even if only one label per ESI is enough).

   o PE1, PE2 and PE3 will not add forwarding states to the MAC FIB upon
      learning new local CE MAC addresses on the data plane, but will
      rather add forwarding states to the MPLS LFIB.

6.3. Impact of MPLS-based forwarding on the VLAN-bundle service
      procedures

   Compared to the MAC-based forwarding model, the MPLS-based forwarding
   model has no impact in terms of number of routes when all the service
   interfaces are VLAN-bundle type. The differences for the use-case
   described in this document are summarized in the following list:

   o Flooding tree setup per EVI (one route): no impact compared to the
      MAC-based model.

   o Ethernet A-D routes per ESI (one route for ESI12 per PE): no impact
      compared to the MAC-based model.

   o Ethernet A-D routes per EVI (one route per PE/ESI): no impact
      compared to the MAC-based model since no VLAN translation is
      required.

   o MAC-advertisement routes: instead of allocating and advertising the
      same MPLS label for all the new MACs locally learnt on the same
      MAC-VRF, a different label MUST be advertised per CE next-hop or
      MAC so that no MAC FIB lookup is needed at the egress PE. In
      general, this means that a different label at least per CE must be
      advertised, although the PE can decide to implement a label per
      MAC if more granularity (hence less scalability) is required in
      terms of forwarding states. It is up to the PE1 implementation to
      use a different label per individual MAC within the same ES
      Segment (even if only one label per ESI is enough).

   o PE1, PE2 and PE3 will not add forwarding states to the MAC FIB upon
      learning new local CE MAC addresses on the data plane, but will
      rather add forwarding states to the MPLS LFIB.

6.4. Impact of MPLS-based forwarding on the VLAN-aware service
      procedures

   Compared to the MAC-based forwarding model, the MPLS-based forwarding
   model has definitively an impact in terms of number of A-D routes
   when all the service interfaces are VLAN-aware bundle type. The
   differences for the use-case described in this document are
   summarized in the following list:
 

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   o Flooding tree setup per EVI (4k routes per PE): no impact compared
      to the MAC-based model.

   o Ethernet A-D routes per ESI (one route for ESI12 per PE): no impact
      compared to the MAC-based model.

   o Ethernet A-D routes per EVI (4k routes per PE/ESI): PE1 and PE2
      will send 4k routes for EVI300, one per <ESI, Ethernet-Tag ID>
      tuple. This will allow the egress PE to find out all the
      forwarding information in the MPLS LFIB and even support Ethernet-
      Tag to CE-VID translation at the egress. The MAC-based forwarding
      model would allow the PEs to send a single route per PE/ESI for
      EVI300, since the packet with the embedded Ethernet-Tag would be
      used to perform a MAC lookup and find out the egress CE-VID.

   o MAC-advertisement routes: instead of allocating and advertising the
      same MPLS label for all the new MACs locally learnt on the same
      MAC-VRF, a different label MUST be advertised per CE next-hop or
      MAC so that no MAC FIB lookup is needed at the egress PE. In
      general, this means that a different label at least per CE must be
      advertised, although the PE can decide to implement a label per
      MAC if more granularity (hence less scalability) is required in
      terms of forwarding states. It is up to the PE1 implementation to
      use a different label per individual MAC within the same ES
      Segment. Note that, in this model, the Ethernet-Tag will be set to
      a non-zero value for the MAC-advertisement routes. The same MAC
      address can be announced with different Ethernet-Tag value. This
      will make the advertising PE install two different forwarding
      states in the MPLS LFIB.

   o PE1, PE2 and PE3 will not add forwarding states to the MAC FIB upon
      learning new local CE MAC addresses on the data plane, but will
      rather add forwarding states to the MPLS LFIB.

7. Comparison between MAC-based and MPLS-based forwarding models

   Both forwarding models are possible in a network deployment and each
   one has its own trade-offs.

   The MAC-based forwarding model can save A-D routes per EVI when VLAN-
   aware bundling services are deployed and therefore reduce the control
   plane overhead. This model also saves a significant amount of MPLS
   labels compared to the MPLS-based forwarding model. All the MACs and
   A-D routes for the same EVI can signal the same MPLS label, saving
   labels from the local PE space. A MAC FIB lookup at the egress PE is
   required in order to do so.

 

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   The MPLS-based forwarding model can save forwarding states at the
   egress PEs if labels per next hop CE (as opposed to per MAC) are
   implemented. No egress MAC lookup is required. An A-D route per <EVI,
   Ethernet-Tag> is required for VLAN-aware services, as opposed to an
   A-D route per EVI. Also, a different label per next-hop CE per MAC-
   VRF is consumed, as opposed to a single label per MAC-VRF.

   The following table summarizes the implementation details of both
   models for the VLAN-aware bundling service type.

    +-----------------------------+----------------+----------------+
    |  4k CE-VID VLANs            | MAC-based      | MPLS-based     |
    |                             | Model          | Model          |
    +-----------------------------+----------------+----------------+
    | A-D routes/EVI              | 1 per ESI/EVI  | 4k per ESI/EVI |
    | MPLS labels consumed        | 1 per MAC-VRF  | 1 per CE/EVI   | 
    | Egress PE Forwarding states | 1 per MAC      | 1 per next-hop |
    | Egress PE Lookups           | 2 (MPLS+MAC)   | 1 (MPLS)       |
    +-----------------------------+----------------+----------------+

   The egress forwarding model is an implementation local to the egress
   PE and is independent of the model supported on the rest of the PEs,
   i.e. in our use-case, PE1, PE2 and PE3 could have either egress
   forwarding model without any dependencies.

8. Traffic flow optimization

   In addition to the procedures described across sections 1 through 7,
   EVPN [RFC7432] procedures allow for optimized traffic handling in
   order to minimize unnecessary flooding across the entire
   infrastructure. Optimization is provided through specific ARP
   termination and the ability to block unknown unicast flooding.
   Additionally, EVPN procedures allow for intelligent, close to the
   source, inter-subnet forwarding and solves the commonly known sub-
   optimal routing problem. Besides the traffic efficiency, ingress
   based inter-subnet forwarding also optimizes packet forwarding rules
   and implementation at the egress nodes as well. Details of these
   procedures are outlined in sections 8.1 and 8.2.

8.1. Control Plane Procedures

8.1.1. MAC learning options

   The fundamental premise of [RFC7432] is the notion of a different
   approach to MAC address learning compared to traditional IEEE 802.1
   bridge learning methods; specifically EVPN differentiates between
   data and control plane driven learning mechanisms.

 

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   Data driven learning implies that there is no separate communication
   channel used to advertise and propagate MAC addresses. Rather, MAC
   addresses are learned through IEEE defined bridge-learning procedures
   as well as by snooping on DHCP and ARP requests. As different MAC
   addresses show up on different ports, the L2 FIB is populated with
   the appropriate MAC addresses.

   Control plane driven learning implies a communication channel that
   could be either a control-plane protocol or a management-plane
   mechanism. In the context of EVPN, two different learning procedures
   are defined, i.e. local and remote procedures:

   o  Local learning defines the procedures used for learning the MAC
      addresses of network elements locally connected to a MAC-VRF.
      Local learning could be implemented through all three learning
      procedures: control plane, management plane as well as data plane.
      However, the expectation is that for most of the use cases, local
      learning through data plane should be sufficient.

   o  Remote learning defines the procedures used for learning MAC
      addresses of network elements remotely connected to a MAC-VRF,
      i.e. far-end PEs. Remote learning procedures defined in [RFC7432]
      advocate using only control plane learning; specifically BGP.
      Through the use of BGP EVPN NLRIs, the remote PE has the
      capability of advertising all the MAC addresses present in its
      local FIB.

8.1.2. Proxy-ARP/ND

   In EVPN, MAC addresses are advertised via the MAC/IP Advertisement
   Route, as discussed in [RFC7432]. Optionally an IP address can be
   advertised along with the MAC address announcement. However, there
   are certain rules put in place in terms of IP address usage: if the
   MAC Advertisement Route contains an IP address, and the IP Address
   Length is 32 bits (or 128 in the IPv6 case), this particular IP
   address correlates directly with the advertised MAC address. Such
   advertisement allows us to build a proxy-ARP/ND table populated with
   the IP<>MAC bindings received from all the remote nodes.

   Furthermore, based on these bindings, a local MAC-VRF can now provide
   Proxy-ARP/ND functionality for all ARP requests and ND solicitations
   directed to the IP address pool learned through BGP. Therefore, the
   amount of unnecessary L2 flooding, ARP/ND requests/solicitations in
   this case, can be further reduced by the introduction of Proxy-ARP/ND
   functionality across all EVI MAC-VRFs.

8.1.3. Unknown Unicast flooding suppression

 

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   Given that all locally learned MAC addresses are advertised through
   BGP to all remote PEs, suppressing flooding of any Unknown Unicast
   traffic towards the remote PEs is a feasible network optimization.

   The assumption in the use case is made that any network device that
   appears on a remote MAC-VRF will somehow signal its presence to the
   network. This signaling can be done through e.g. gratuitous ARPs.
   Once the remote PE acknowledges the presence of the node in the MAC-
   VRF, it will do two things: install its MAC address in its local FIB
   and advertise this MAC address to all other BGP speakers via EVPN
   NLRI. Therefore, we can assume that any active MAC address is
   propagated and learnt through the entire EVI. Given that MAC
   addresses become pre-populated - once nodes are alive on the network
   - there is no need to flood any unknown unicast towards the remote
   PEs. If the owner of a given destination MAC is active, the BGP route
   will be present in the local RIB and FIB, assuming that the BGP
   import policies are successfully applied; otherwise, the owner of
   such destination MAC is not present on the network.

   It is worth noting that unless: a) control or management plane
   learning is performed through the entire EVI or b) all the EVI-
   attached devices signal their presence when they come up (GARPs or
   similar), unknown unicast flooding MUST be enabled.

8.1.4. Optimization of Inter-subnet forwarding

   In a scenario in which both L2 and L3 services are needed over the
   same physical topology, some interaction between EVPN and IP-VPN is
   required. A common way of stitching the two service planes is through
   the use of an IRB interface, which allows for traffic to be either
   routed or bridged depending on its destination MAC address. If the
   destination MAC address is the one of the IRB interface, traffic
   needs to be passed through a routing module and potentially be either
   routed to a remote PE or forwarded to a local subnet. If the
   destination MAC address is not the one of the IRB, the MAC-VRF
   follows standard bridging procedures.

   A typical example of EVPN inter-subnet forwarding would be a scenario
   in which multiple IP subnets are part of a single or multiple EVIs,
   and they all belong to a single IP-VPN. In such topologies, it is
   desired that inter-subnet traffic can be efficiently routed without
   any tromboning effects in the network. Due to the overlapping
   physical and service topology in such scenarios, all inter-subnet
   connectivity will be locally routed trough the IRB interface.

   In addition to optimizing the traffic patterns in the network, local
   inter-subnet forwarding also optimizes greatly the amount of
   processing needed to cross the subnets. Through EVPN MAC
 

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   advertisements, the local PE learns the real destination MAC address
   associated with the remote IP address and the inter-subnet forwarding
   can happen locally. When the packet is received at the egress PE, it
   is directly mapped to an egress MAC-VRF, bypassing any egress IP-VPN
   processing.

   Please refer to [EVPN-INTERSUBNET] for more information about the IP
   inter-subnet forwarding procedures in EVPN.

8.2. Packet Walkthrough Examples

   Assuming that the services are setup according to figure 1 in section
   2, the following flow optimization processes will take place in terms
   of creating, receiving and forwarding packets across the network.

8.2.1. Proxy-ARP example for CE2 to CE3 traffic

   Using figure 1 in section 2, consider EVI 400 residing on PE1, PE2
   and PE3 connecting CE2 and CE3 networks. Also, consider that PE1 and
   PE2 are part of the all-active multi-homing ES for CE2, and that PE2
   is elected designated-forwarder for EVI400. We assume that all the
   PEs implement the proxy-ARP functionality in the MAC-VRF-400 context.

   In this scenario, PE3 will not only advertise the MAC addresses
   through the EVPN MAC Advertisement Route but also IP addresses of
   individual hosts, i.e. /32 prefixes, behind CE3. Upon receiving the
   EVPN routes, PE1 and PE2 will install the MAC addresses in the MAC-
   VRF-400 FIB and based on the associated received IP addresses, PE1
   and PE2 can now build a proxy-ARP table within the context of MAC-
   VRF-400.

   From the forwarding perspective, when a node behind CE2 sends a frame
   destined to a node behind CE3, it will first send an ARP request to
   e.g. PE2 (based on the result of the CE2 hashing). Assuming that PE2
   has populated its proxy-ARP table for all active nodes behind the
   CE3, and that the IP address in the ARP message matches the entry in
   the table, PE2 will respond to the ARP request with the actual MAC
   address on behalf of the node behind CE3.

   Once the nodes behind CE2 learn the actual MAC address of the nodes
   behind CE3, all the MAC-to-MAC communications between the two
   networks will be unicast.

8.2.2. Flood suppression example for CE1 to CE3 traffic

   Using figure 1 in section 2, consider EVI 500 residing on PE1 and PE3
   connecting CE1 and CE3 networks. Consider that both PE1 and PE3 have
   disabled unknown unicast flooding for this specific EVI context. Once
 

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   the network devices behind CE3 come online they will learn their MAC
   addresses and create local FIB entries for these devices. Note that
   local FIB entries could also be created through either a control or
   management plane between PE and CE as well. Consequently, PE3 will
   automatically create EVPN Type 2 MAC Advertisement Routes and
   advertise all locally learned MAC addresses. The routes will also
   include the corresponding MPLS label.

   Given that PE1 automatically learns and installs all MAC addresses
   behind CE3, its MAC-VRF FIB will already be pre-populated with the
   respective next-hops and label assignments associated with the MAC
   addresses behind CE3. As such, as soon as the traffic sent by CE1 to
   nodes behind CE3 is received into the context of EVI 500, PE1 will
   push the MPLS Label(s) onto the original Ethernet frame and send the
   packet to the MPLS network. As usual, once PE3 receives this packet,
   and depending on the forwarding model, PE3 will either do a next-hop
   lookup in the EVI 500 context, or will just forward the traffic
   directly to the CE3. In the case that PE1 MAC-VRF-500 does not have a
   MAC entry for a specific destination that CE1 is trying to reach, PE1
   will drop the frame since unknown unicast flooding is disabled.

   Based on the assumption that all the MAC entries behind the CEs are
   pre-populated through gratuitous-ARP and/or DHCP requests, if one
   specific MAC entry is not present in the MAC-VRF-500 FIB on PE1, the
   owner of that MAC is not alive on the network behind the CE3, hence
   the traffic can be dropped at PE1 instead of be flooded and consume
   network bandwidth.

8.2.3. Optimization of inter-subnet forwarding example for CE3 to CE2
   traffic

   Using figure 1 in section 2 consider that there is an IP-VPN 666
   context residing on PE1, PE2 and PE3 which connects CE1, CE2 and CE3
   into a single IP-VPN domain. Also consider that there are two EVIs
   present on the PEs, EVI 600 and EVI 60. Each IP subnet is associated
   to a different MAC-VRF context. Thus there is a single subnet, subnet
   600, between CE1 and CE3 that is established through EVI 600.
   Similarly, there is another subnet, subnet 60, between CE2 and CE3
   that is established through EVI 60. Since both subnets are part of
   the same IP VPN, there is a mapping of each EVI (or individual
   subnet) to a local IRB interface on the three PEs.

   If a node behind CE2 wants to communicate with a node on the same
   subnet seating behind CE3, the communication flow will follow the
   standard EVPN procedures, i.e. FIB lookup within the PE1 (or PE2)
   after adding the corresponding EVPN label to the MPLS label stack
   (downstream label allocation from PE3 for EVI 60).

 

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   When it comes to crossing the subnet boundaries, the ingress PE
   implements local inter-subnet forwarding. For example, when a node
   behind CE2 (EVI 60) sends a packet to a node behind CE1 (EVI 600) the
   destination IP address will be in the subnet 600, but the destination
   MAC address will be the address of source node's default gateway,
   which in this case will be an IRB interface on PE1 (connecting EVI 60
   to IP-VPN 666). Once PE1 sees the traffic destined to its own MAC
   address, it will route the packet to EVI 600, i.e. it will change the
   source MAC address to the one of the IRB interface in EVI 600 and
   change the destination MAC address to the address belonging to the
   node behind CE1, which is already populated in the MAC-VRF-600 FIB,
   either through data or control plane learning.

   An important optimization to be noted is the local inter-subnet
   forwarding in lieu of IP VPN routing. If the node from subnet 60
   (behind CE2) is sending a packet to the remote end node on subnet 600
   (behind CE3), the mechanism in place still honors the local inter-
   subnet (inter-EVI) forwarding. 

   In our use-case, therefore, when node from subnet 60 behind CE2 sends
   traffic to the node on subnet 600 behind CE3, the destination MAC
   address is the PE1 MAC-VRF-60 IRB MAC address. However, once the
   traffic locally crosses EVIs, to EVI 600, via the IRB interface on
   PE1, the source MAC address is changed to that of the IRB interface
   and the destination MAC address is changed to the one advertised by
   PE3 via EVPN and already installed in MAC-VRF-600. The rest of the
   forwarding through PE1 is using the MAC-VRF-600 forwarding context
   and label space.

   Another very relevant optimization is due to the fact that traffic
   between PEs is forwarded through EVPN, rather than through IP-VPN. In
   the example described above for traffic from EVI 60 on CE2 to EVI 600
   on CE3, there is no need for IP-VPN processing on the egress PE3.
   Traffic is forwarded either to the EVI 600 context in PE3 for further
   MAC lookup and next-hop processing, or directly to the node behind
   CE3, depending on the egress forwarding model being used.

9. Conventions used in this document

   In the examples, the following conventions are used:

   o CE-VIDs refer to the VLAN tag identifiers being used at CE1, CE2
      and CE3 to tag customer traffic sent to the Service Provider E-
      VPN network

   o CE1-MAC, CE2-MAC and CE3-MAC refer to source MAC addresses "behind"
      each CE respectively. Those MAC addresses can belong to the CEs
      themselves or to devices connected to the CEs.
 

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   o CE1-IP, CE2-IP and CE3-IP refer to IP addresses associated to the
      above MAC addresses.

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in RFC-2119 [RFC2119].

   In this document, these words will appear with that interpretation
   only when in ALL CAPS. Lower case uses of these words are not to be
   interpreted as carrying RFC-2119 significance.

10. Security Considerations

   Please refer to the "Security Considerations" section in [RFC7432].

11. IANA Considerations

   No new IANA considerations are needed. 

12. References

12.1. Normative References

   [RFC4761]Kompella, K., Ed., and Y. Rekhter, Ed., "Virtual Private LAN
   Service (VPLS) Using BGP for Auto-Discovery and Signaling", RFC 4761,
   DOI 10.17487/RFC4761, January 2007, <http://www.rfc-
   editor.org/info/rfc4761>.

   [RFC4762]Lasserre, M., Ed., and V. Kompella, Ed., "Virtual Private
   LAN Service (VPLS) Using Label Distribution Protocol (LDP)
   Signaling", RFC 4762, DOI 10.17487/RFC4762, January 2007,
   <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4762>.

   [RFC6074]Rosen, E., Davie, B., Radoaca, V., and W. Luo,
   "Provisioning, Auto-Discovery, and Signaling in Layer 2 Virtual
   Private Networks (L2VPNs)", RFC 6074, DOI 10.17487/RFC6074, January
   2011, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6074>.

   [RFC4364]Rosen, E. and Y. Rekhter, "BGP/MPLS IP Virtual Private
   Networks (VPNs)", RFC 4364, DOI 10.17487/RFC4364, February 2006,
   <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4364>.

   [RFC7209]Sajassi, A., Aggarwal, R., Uttaro, J., Bitar, N.,
   Henderickx, W., and A. Isaac, "Requirements for Ethernet VPN (EVPN)",
   RFC 7209, DOI 10.17487/RFC7209, May 2014, <http://www.rfc-
   editor.org/info/rfc7209>.

 

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   [RFC7117]Aggarwal, R., Ed., Kamite, Y., Fang, L., Rekhter, Y., and C.
   Kodeboniya, "Multicast in Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS)",
   RFC 7117, DOI 10.17487/RFC7117, February 2014, <http://www.rfc-
   editor.org/info/rfc7117>.

   [RFC7432]Sajassi, A., Ed., Aggarwal, R., Bitar, N., Isaac, A.,
   Uttaro, J., Drake, J., and W. Henderickx, "BGP MPLS-Based Ethernet
   VPN", RFC 7432, DOI 10.17487/RFC7432, February 2015, <http://www.rfc-
   editor.org/info/rfc7432>.

12.2. Informative References

   [EVPN-INTERSUBNET] Sajassi et al., "IP Inter-subnet forwarding in
   EVPN", draft-ietf-bess-evpn-inter-subnet-forwarding-00.txt

13. Acknowledgments

   The authors want to thank Giles Heron for his detailed review of the
   document. We also thank Stefan Plug for his comments.

14. Authors' Addresses

   Jorge Rabadan 
   Alcatel-Lucent
   777 E. Middlefield Road 
   Mountain View, CA 94043 USA
   Email: jorge.rabadan@alcatel-lucent.com

   Senad Palislamovic
   Alcatel-Lucent
   Email: senad.palislamovic@alcatel-lucent.com

   Wim Henderickx
   Alcatel-Lucent
   Email: wim.henderickx@alcatel-lucent.com

   Florin Balus
   Alcatel-Lucent
   Email: Florin.Balus@alcatel-lucent.com

   Keyur Patel
   Cisco
   Email: keyupate@cisco.com

   Ali Sajassi
 

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   Cisco
   Email: sajassi@cisco.com

   James Uttaro
   AT&T
   Email: uttaro@att.com

   Aldrin Isaac
   Bloomberg
   Email: aisaac71@bloomberg.net

   Truman Boyes
   Bloomberg
   Email: tboyes@bloomberg.net

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