Brocade Multi-Service IronWare Switching Configuration Guide (Supporting R05.6.00) - Manual (Page 253)

Multi-Service IronWare Switching Configuration Guide 223
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Chapter
8
Ethernet Service Instance (ESI) for Brocade NetIron CES
and Brocade NetIron CER Devices
Ethernet Service Instance (ESI) overview
An Ethernet Service Instance (ESI) is a provisioning environment for defining VLAN and other layer
2 parameters for creating services, typically across a carrier network.
In a local area network a total of 4K VLANs can be configured across the entire network domain.
With a Q-in-Q bridging, VLANs from the set of 4K VLANs can be inter-connected across a provider
network. While Ethernet Switching Instance (ESI) allows a carrier to provide transport services for
different sets of 4K VLANs for different customers, the provider network is still limited to using 4K
VLANs across all of the customers connected to a single box, as it is very difficult to configure and
manage different sets of 4K VLANs across the different ports within a single system.
Using an Ethernet Switching Instance (ESI), a carrier can create service instances that hold one or
more VLANs. Each instance has an alphanumeric name that is locally unique. The purpose of
creating an instance is to provide a container to hold VLANs and other layer2 parameters that
define properties of all of the elements contained within the instance.
VLANs are added to an ESI using a standard VLAN command for individual VLANs or a VLAN group
command for adding a set of VLANs.
In a simplified network shown in Figure 19 , customers A and B are connected to a Brocade NetIron
CES device with each customer having a separate set of 4K VLANs. One or more ESIs are created to
hold these 4K VLANs.
NOTE
Although theoretically it is possible to add sets of 4K VLANs in ESIs, the actual number of VLANs in
an ESI is limited by the use of memory and hardware resources.
FIGURE 19 Ethernet Service Instance for VLAN configuration