This document specifies mechanisms for backward compatibility of
Ethernet VPN Virtual Private Wire Service (EVPN-VPWS)
solutions with legacy Virtual Private Wire Service (VPWS).
It provides mechanisms for seamless integration in the same MPLS/IP network on a per-pseudowire
or per flexible-crossconnect service basis. Implementation of this document enables
service providers to introduce EVPN-VPWS PEs in their brown-field deployments of
legacy VPWS networks. This document specifies control-plane and forwarding behaviour
needed for auto-discovery of a pseudowire in order to enable seamless
integration between EVPN-VPWS and VPWS PEs.¶
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Virtual Private Wire Service (VPWS) is a widely-deployed Layer-2 VPN (L2VPN) technology.
Many service providers, who are looking at adopting Ethernet VPN Virtual Private Wire Service
(EVPN-VPWS), want to preserve their investment in the VPWS networks. Hence,
they require mechanisms by which EVPN-VPWS can be introduced into their brown-field legacy VPWS networks
without requiring any upgrades (software or hardware) to these networks.
This document specifies control-plane and forwarding behaviour needed for auto-discovery of a pseudowire
in order to enable seamless integration between EVPN-VPWS Provider Edge(PE) devices and PEs
running legacy VPWS services in the same MPLS/IP network.¶
Figure 1 shows a simple network where PE1 runs in hybrid mode (EVPN-VPWS and
legacy VPWS). It provides a pseudowire (PW1) with PE2 running legacy VPWS. It also provides a
pseudowire (PW2) with PE3 running EVPN-VPWS. PE2 may be upgraded to EVPN-VPWS seamlessly. Legacy PEs may
be setting up PWs per [RFC8077] or may be setting up a VPWS service by first
auto-discovering VPN members using [RFC6074] and then setting up the PWs
using [RFC8077] or [RFC6624].¶
The seamless integration solution described in this document has the
following attributes:¶
- It is backward compatible with [RFC8214] and EVPN Flexible
crossconnect Service [evpn_fxc] document.¶
- New PEs can leverage the multi-homing mechanisms and provisioning simplifications
of EVPN Ethernet-Segment:¶
Auto-election of Designated Forwarder and VLAN carving¶
Support of various load-balancing mode such as port-active, single-active and all-active¶
Figure 2 illustrates how legacy VPWS brown-field network migration to EVPN-VPWS is achieved.
For example, let say PE1 and PE2 have a legacy PW established between them. First, network
operator may upgrade PE2 to support EVPN-VPWS. Once upgraded, PE2
which now have the EVPN-VPWS capability still runs legacy VPWS PW
with PE1. Later on, network operator may decide to upgrade PE1 to
support EVPN-VPWS. As soon as the upgrade is completed, EVPN-VPWS
service takes high-precedence over legacy VPWS network. The network
operator can safely remove any legacy configuration related to that
PW from PE1 and PE2 nodes. PW remains established as an EVPN-VPWS
service.¶
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 [RFC2119].¶
VPWS: Virtual Private Wire Service. It refers to legacy VPWS circuit where pseudowires
are signalled using LDP or BGP-AD protocol. The latter is referred as VPWS A-D.¶
EVPN-VPWS: Ethernet-VPN Virtual Private Wire Service. It refers to EVPN-VPWS circuit
where pseudowires are signalled via BGP-EVPN. It can also refer to [evpn_fxc].¶
EVPN-FXC: Ethernet-VPN Flexible Cross-connect Service [evpn_fxc].¶
Port-Active Redundancy Mode: When only a single PE, among all the PEs attached to an
Ethernet segment, is allowed to forward traffic to/from that Ethernet segment for a given
interface, then the Ethernet Segment is defined to be operating in Port-Active redundancy mode.¶
Single-Active Redundancy Mode: When only a single PE, among all the PEs attached
to an Ethernet segment, is allowed to forward traffic to/from that Ethernet segment
for a given VLAN, then the Ethernet Segment is defined to be operating in Single-Active
redundancy mode.¶
All-Active Redundancy Mode: When all PEs attached to an Ethernet Segment are allowed
to forward traffic to/from that Ethernet segment for a given VLAN, then the Ethernet segment
is defined to be operating in All-Active redundancy mode.¶
VPWS A-D: refers to Virtual Private Wire Services with BGP-based Auto Discovery as in
[RFC6074].¶
Following are the key requirements for backward compatibility between EVPN-VPWS and VPWS:¶
The solution MUST allow for staged migration towards EVPN-VPWS on a site-by-site
basis - e.g., new EVPN-VPWS sites to be provisioned on EVPN-VPWS Provider
Edge devices (PEs). Migration SHOULD be possible on a per-pseudowire basis.¶
The solution MUST NOT require any changes to existing Legacy VPWS or PEs,
unless it is to upgrade them to EVPN-VPWS.¶
The solution MUST allow for the co-existence of PE devices running
EVPN-VPWS and VPWS for the same single-homed and/or multi-homed
segments.¶
The solution MUST support port-active redundancy of multi-homed
networks and multi-homed devices for EVPN-VPWS PEs.¶
The solution MUST support single-active redundancy of multi-homed
networks and multi-homed devices for EVPN-VPWS PEs.¶
The solution SHOULD support all-active redundancy of multi-homed Ethernet Segments
for EVPN-VPWS PEs.¶
These requirements collectively allow for the seamless insertion of
the EVPN-VPWS technology into brown-field VPWS deployments.¶
In order to support seamless integration with Legacy PEs, this document may require Legacy PEs
to setup PWs per [RFC8077] or may require Legacy PEs to setup VPWS service by
auto-discovering VPN members using [RFC6074] and then setting up the PWs
using [RFC8077] or [RFC6624]. Furthermore, EVPN-VPWS PEs must
support BGP EVPN routes per [RFC8214] and one of
method of legacy VPWS technologies. All the logic for seamless integration
SHALL reside on the EVPN-VPWS PEs.¶
The EVPN-VPWS PEs MUST advertise both BGP VPWS Auto-Discovery (VPWS A-D)
route or LDP-LM message as well as the BGP EVPN Ethernet-AD per EVI
route for a given pseudowire.¶
In the case of VPWS PEs running VPWS A-D, they may advertise the BGP
VPWS A-D route, per the procedures specified in [RFC4664]
and [RFC6074]. The operator may decide to use the same BGP Route Target
(RT) to identify a pseudowire on both EVPN-VPWS and VPWS networks. In this case,
when a VPWS PE receives the EVPN Ethernet-AD per EVI route, it MUST ignore it on the
basis that it belongs to an unknown SAFI. However, the operator may
choose to use two RTs - one to identify the pseudowire on VPWS network and
another for EVPN-VPWS network and employ RT-constrained [RFC4684] in order
to prevent BGP EVPN routes from reaching the VPWS PEs.¶
When an EVPN-VPWS PE receives both a VPWS A-D route or a LDP-LM message as well as
an EVPN-VPWS Ethernet-AD per EVI route from a given remote PE for the same pseudowire, it MUST
give preference to the EVPN-VPWS route for the purpose of discovery. This
ensures that, at the end of the route exchange, all EVPN-VPWS capable PEs
discover other EVPN-VPWS capable PEs. Furthermore, all the VPWS-only PEs discover
the EVPN-VPWS PEs as if they are standard VPWS PEs. In other words, when
the discovery phase is completed, the EVPN-VPWS PEs have discovered
the remote PE per pseudowire along with their associated
capability (EVPN-VPWS or VPWS-only), whereas the VPWS PE have
discovered the remote PE per pseudowire as if it is VPWS-only PEs.¶
The EVPN-VPWS PE MUST establish a PW to each remote PE from which it has
received only a VPWS A-D route or a LDP-LM message for the corresponding pseudowire,
and MUST set up the label stack corresponding to the PW FEC.¶
If an EVPN-VPWS PE receives a VPWS A-D route or a LDP-LM message from a given PE,
it sets up a Legacy VPWS PW to that PE. If it then receives an EVPN Ethernet-AD per EVI route for that PW
from the same PE, then the EVPN-VPWS PE may bring the Legacy PW operationally down and MUST
forward traffic using the label information from the EVPN Ethernet-AD per EVI route.¶
If an EVPN-VPWS PE receives an EVPN Ethernet-AD per EVI route followed by a VPWS A-D
route or a LDP-LM message from the same PE, then the EVPN-VPWS PE will setup the EVPN-VPWS PW. It may
keep the Legacy VPWS PW operationally down and MUST forward traffic using the reachability information
from that EVPN Ethernet-AD per EVI route.¶
For VPWS PEs not using VPWS A-D or LDP signalling, the EVPN-VPWS PEs need to
be provisioned manually with PWs to those remote VPWS PEs for each
pseudowire. In that case, if an EVPN-VPWS PE receives an EVPN Ethernet-AD per EVI route
from a PE to which a PW exists, it may keep VPWS PW operationally down and MUST forward
traffic using the reachability information from that EVPN Ethernet-AD per EVI route.¶
Figure 4 below demonstrates multi-homing scenarios. CE1 is connected to
PE1 and PE2 where PE1 is the designated forwarder while PE2 is the non designated forwarder.¶
In Figure 4, PE1 and PE2 are configured in port-active load-balancing mode.
Both PEs are advertising EVPN Ethernet-AD per ES route with the single-active bit set as described in
EVPN port-active document [evpn_pa]. In this example PE1 is DF elected
for the shared Ethernet Segment identifier.¶
Only PE1, as DF, advertises the VPWS A-D route or LDP-LM message towards remote PE3.¶
PE1 advertises the EVPN Ethernet-AD per EVI route for PW1 towards remote PE3.
The P-bit in L2 Attributes Extended Community is set for PE1 as per
[RFC8214]. The purpose is to have all required EVPN-VPWS routes on remote PE so
during an upgrade from Legacy VPWS to EVPN-VPWS, those remote nodes are immediately upgraded.¶
PE2, as NDF, only advertises its EVPN Ethernet AD per EVI route
corresponding to that same PW1.
The B-bit in L2 Attributes Extended Community is set for PE2 as per
[RFC8214]¶
Upon link failure between CE1 and PE1, PE1 and PE2 follows EVPN Ethernet Segment DF Election
procedures described in [RFC8214] for EVPN-VPWS. Furthermore, PE1 withdraws its VPWS A-D
route or sends LDP-LW message to remote PE3 to teardown the Legacy PW. Finally, PE2 advertises
corresponding VPWS A-D route or LDP-LM message for that PW1 and re-establish Legacy PW with new PE2
destination.¶
If PE3 is running 2-way pseudowire redundancy and PW-status is enabled, PE2 may leverage the existence
of standby/backup PW with PE3.
In this particular scenario, PE2 may advertise VPWS A-D route or LDP-LM
message along with PW-status message.¶
Once PE3 is upgraded and supports EVPN-VPWS, seamless integration procedures are applied. Higher
precedence of EVPN-VPWS over VPWS allow all PEs to avoid the usage of legacy circuit. At that point
in time, non-preferred legacy VPWS protocols and configuration may be removed from all PEs.¶
Single-active operation is similar to Port-active load-balancing mode described above but
at the VLAN level instead being of at the port/interface level.¶
The main difference resides on the support of Legacy PW VC-type 4 vs PW VC-Type 5 mode
on the EVPN-VPWS PE as per [RFC4448]. While services running in port-active
load-balancing mode require raw mode, services running single-active load-balancing mode
use tagged mode.¶
In EVPN-VPWS all-active load-balancing mode, all PEs participating in a redundancy group
forward traffic bidirectionally, reducing the importance of DF and NDF PE. However PEs
running Legacy VPWS do NOT support all-active peering PEs as remote endpoint.¶
EVPN-VPWS PE discovering remote PE running VPWS PW MAY fallback into port-active load-balancing mode.
In that case, following rules are applied:¶
Peering PEs advertise EVPN Ethernet-AD per ES route with the single-active bit set. They also
advertise EVPN Ethernet-AD per EVI route towards PE3 with P/B bit set accordingly as
per [RFC8214].¶
DF PE advertises VPWS AD routes or LDP-LM message and EVPN Ethernet AD per EVI route per PW.¶
NDF PE advertises only EVPN Ethernet AD per EVI route per PW.¶
If PE3 is running 2-ways pseudowire redundancy, PE2 may leverage the existence of
standby/backup PW with PE3. PE2 may advertise VPWS AD route or LDP-LM message with
proper PW-status message.¶
One privilege option is the asymmetric forwarding while peering PEs run in all-active
load-balancing mode. In the example of Figure 3, traffic from CE1 going to PE1 is forwarded to
PE3 using the VPN label learned from VPWS AD route or LDP-LM message received from PE3.
Traffic from CE1 going to PE2 should get forwarded to PE3 using that same VPN label.
Traffic coming from CE3 to PE3 gets forwarded only over the primary PW towards PE1; the DF PE.¶
Supporting asymmetric forwarding with purely LDP as per [RFC8077] requires
extensions to EVPN-VPWS MH procedures.
These procedures are NOT restricted only to LDP and may be applied to VPWS A-D.¶
Following rules are applied to achieve expected behaviour:¶
Peering PEs advertise EVPN Ethernet-AD per ES route with the single-active bit unset.
That is to get the network ready when remote legacy PE are upgraded to EVPN-VPWS.¶
DF PE advertises VPWS AD routes or LDP-LM message and EVPN Ethernet AD per EVI route per PW.¶
NDF PE advertises only EVPN Ethernet AD per EVI route per PW.¶
If PE3 is running 2-ways pseudowire redundancy, PE2 may leverage the existence of
standby/backup PW with PE3. PE2 may advertise VPWS AD route or LDP-LM message with
proper PW-status message.¶
The tunnel encapsulation
attribute [tun_encap] is used to synchronize alias PW label between peering PEs.
The tunnel encapsulation attribute, specifying the alias PW label and tunnel endpoint (nexthop)
of the remote PE (PE3), is transmitted along with EVPN Ethernet-AD per EVI route. The NDF PEs
uses the same VPN label per Legacy PW as DF PE when transmitting
traffic coming from CE (CE1) towards remote PE(PE3).¶
Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
[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, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6074>.
[RFC6624]
Kompella, K., Kothari, B., and R. Cherukuri, "Layer 2 Virtual Private Networks Using BGP for Auto-Discovery and Signaling", RFC 6624, DOI 10.17487/RFC6624, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6624>.
[RFC8077]
Martini, L., Ed. and G. Heron, Ed., "Pseudowire Setup and Maintenance Using the Label Distribution Protocol (LDP)", STD 84, RFC 8077, DOI 10.17487/RFC8077, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8077>.
[RFC8214]
Boutros, S., Sajassi, A., Salam, S., Drake, J., and J. Rabadan, "Virtual Private Wire Service Support in Ethernet VPN", RFC 8214, DOI 10.17487/RFC8214, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8214>.
Sajassi, A.S. and P.B. Brissette, "draft-ietf-bess-evpn-vpws-fxc", .
[evpn_pa]
Brissette, P.B. and A.S. Sajassi, "draft-brissette-bess-evpn-mh-pa", .
[RFC4448]
Martini, L., Ed., Rosen, E., El-Aawar, N., and G. Heron, "Encapsulation Methods for Transport of Ethernet over MPLS Networks", RFC 4448, DOI 10.17487/RFC4448, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4448>.
[RFC4664]
Andersson, L., Ed. and E. Rosen, Ed., "Framework for Layer 2 Virtual Private Networks (L2VPNs)", RFC 4664, DOI 10.17487/RFC4664, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4664>.
[RFC4684]
Marques, P., Bonica, R., Fang, L., Martini, L., Raszuk, R., Patel, K., and J. Guichard, "Constrained Route Distribution for Border Gateway Protocol/MultiProtocol Label Switching (BGP/MPLS) Internet Protocol (IP) Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)", RFC 4684, DOI 10.17487/RFC4684, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4684>.
[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, , <https://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, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4762>.
[tun_encap]
Patel, K.P., Van de Velde, G.V., and S.S. Sangli, "draft-ietf-idr-tunnel-encaps", .