beautypg.com

Brocade FastIron Ethernet Switch Platform and Layer 2 Switching Configuration Guide User Manual

Page 84

background image

FIGURE 10 Metro ring - ring VLAN and customer VLANs

Notice that each customer has their own VLAN. Customer A has VLAN 30 and Customer B has VLAN
40. Customer A host attached to Switch D can reach the Customer A host attached to Switch B at
Layer 2 through the ring. Since Customer A and Customer B are on different VLANs, they will not
receive each other traffic.

You can configure MRP separately on each customer VLAN. However, this is impractical if you have
many customers. To simplify configuration when you have a lot of customers (and therefore a lot of
VLANs), you can use a topology group.

A topology group enables you to control forwarding in multiple VLANs using a single instance of a
Layer 2 protocol such as MRP. A topology group contains a master VLAN and member VLANs. The
master VLAN contains all the configuration parameters for the Layer 2 protocol (STP, MRP, or VSRP).
The member VLANs use the Layer 2 configuration of the master VLAN.

In

Figure 10

, VLAN 2 is the master VLAN and contains the MRP configuration parameters for ring 1.

VLAN 30 and VLAN 40, the customer VLANs, are member VLANs in the topology group. Since a
topology group is used, a single instance of MRP provides redundancy and loop prevention for both
the customer VLANs.

Metro Features

84

FastIron Ethernet Switch Platform and Layer 2 Switching Configuration Guide

53-1003086-04