Research on Virtual Private LAN Service Signaling Protocol and its Application

Abstract

Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS), as a new layer-2 Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology has attracted enormous interest in the filed during the last few years. Unlike traditional layer 2 VPN, which provides only point-to-point connectivity, VPLS is built for multi-point connectivity and has a broadcast capability like a common LAN.A series of RFCs and drafts related to VPLS have been proposed by IETF. To enable VPLS in a real network, signaling setup is the first step. In this paper, we first conduct some research on LDP-based signaling protocol and demonstrate how to set up control-plane communication in VPLS network. Then, based on the research, we implement the signaling protocol in an embedded router system. In combination with existing data plane software, VPLS is deployed in a real network and some experiments are conducted to test the validity of signaling protocol. All the test results show that the implementation of signaling protocol works quite well. With VPLS deploying more widely in the world, service providers and customers will benefit greatly from this technology.