Introduction to VPLS and Lab Simulation on Huawei Routers

What is a VPLS(Virtual Private LAN Service)

A VPLS is an MPLS-based Ethernet point-to-multipoint (P2MP) L2VPN service provided over a public network. VPLS ensures that geographically isolated customer sites can communicate over MANs or WANs as if they were on the same LAN. VPLS uses either LDP or BGP as the signaling protocol.

From the perspective of the customer, the MPLS IP backbone network is a layer 2 switching device. The PE routers don't need to learn and keep customer routing information.

Benefits of VPLS

Below are the main benefits of VPLS:

• VPLS networks can be constructed based on the carrier's IP backbone networks, reducing construction costs.
• VPLS networks allow users to communicate over Ethernet links, regardless of whether these links are on WANs or LANs. This feature allows services to be rapidly and flexibly deployed.
• VPLS networks free carriers from configuring and maintaining routing policies, reducing operational expenditure.

VPLS Lab Setup

Below is our lab setup. The objective is to configure VPLS on the MPLS network and ensure communication between the three customer sites. LDP is used as the signaling protocol.

Configuration steps

The configuration steps are as follows:

1. Configure IP address on interfaces in the IP backbone network.
2. Configure a routing protocol on the backbone network to achieve connectivity between devices. OSPF is used for this simulation.
3. Configure MPLS and MPLS LDP on the MPLS IP backbone network. Enable mpls globally and on interfaces in the backbone. Enable MPLS L2VPN on PEs.

*************************Sample Config from PE1**************
mpls lsr-id 1.1.1.1
mpls
#
mpls l2vpn
#
mpls ldp

#        

4. Set up remote LDP sessions between PEs.

**************************Sample configure from PE1**********************

mpls ldp remote-peer 2.2.2.2
 remote-ip 2.2.2.2
#
mpls ldp remote-peer 3.3.3.3
 remote-ip 3.3.3.3
#
        

5. Create VSIs on PEs, set the signaling protocol to LDP, and bind VSIs to AC interfaces connecting the customer sites.

*******************************Sample config from PE1****************
vsi 333
 pwsignal ldp
  vsi-id 333
  peer 3.3.3.3
  peer 2.2.2.2
#
interface GigabitEthernet0/0/1.333
 vlan-type dot1q 333
 l2 binding vsi 333
#        

Verification:

Run the command display vsi name 333 verbose to confirm the status of vsi

Ping Site 2 and Site 3 from Site 1 to confirm communication among the three sites

The full lab setup and configurations are available on demand. Feel free to reach out and request.