Peer pe discovery and pw signaling protocol, Vpls packet encapsulation, Packet encapsulation on an ac – H3C Technologies H3C S10500 Series Switches User Manual
Page 174: Packet encapsulation on a pw

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Full mesh: PEs are logically fully meshed (so are PWs). Each PE must create for each VPLS
forwarding instance a tree to all the other PEs of the instance.
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Split horizon forwarding: Each PE must support horizontal split to avoid loops. A PE cannot forward
packets through PWs of the same VSI, because all the PEs of a VSI are directly connected. Packets
from PWs on the public network side cannot be forwarded to other PWs; they can only be
forwarded to the private network side.
Peer PE discovery and PW signaling protocol
For PEs in the same VSI, you can configure the peer PE addresses or use an automatic discovery
mechanism. LDP and BGP are used to automatically discover VSI peer PEs.
For a PW to be created, a PW signaling protocol must assign a multiplex distinguishing flag (or, VC label)
and advertise the assigned VC flag to the peer. In addition, the PW signaling protocol advertises VPLS
system parameters such as PW ID, control word, and interface parameters. With the PW signaling
protocol, PWs can be established between PEs to form a fully meshed network to provide VPLS services.
LDP and BGP can be used as PW signaling protocols.
VPLS can be one of the following based on the PW signaling protocol used:
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LDP VPLS—Uses LDP as the signaling protocol. This mode is also called the “Martini mode”.
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BGP VPLS—Uses BGP extension as the signaling protocol. This mode is also called the “Kompella
mode”.
NOTE:
For more information about the Martini mode and Kompella mode, see the chapter “MPLS L2VPN
configuration.”
VPLS packet encapsulation
Packet encapsulation on an AC
The packet encapsulation type of an AC depends on the user VSI access mode, which can be VLAN or
Ethernet.
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VLAN access: The Ethernet header of a packet sent by a CE to a PE or sent by a PE to a CE includes
a VLAN tag that is added in the header as a service delimiter for the service provider network to
identify the user. The tag is called a “P-Tag”.
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Ethernet access: The Ethernet header of a packet upstream from the CE or downstream from the PE
does not contain any service delimiter. If a header contains a VLAN tag, it is the internal VLAN tag
of the user and means nothing to the PE. This kind of internal VLAN tag of the user is called a
“U-Tag”.
You can specify the VSI access mode to be used.
Packet encapsulation on a PW
The packet encapsulation type of a PW, also called the “PW transport mode”, can be either Ethernet or
VLAN.
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In Ethernet mode, P-Tag is not transferred on the PW. For a packet from a CE, if it contains the
service delimiter, the PE removes the service delimiter and adds a PW label and a tunnel label into
the packet before forwarding the packet. Otherwise, the PE adds a PW label and a tunnel label into
the packet and then forwards the packet. For a packet to be sent downstream, whether the PE adds
the service delimiter into the packet depends on your configuration. However, rewriting and
removing the existing tags are not allowed.