[AusNOG] MPLS/VPLS solution

[Lincoln Dale]

On 10/09/2010, at 12:31 PM, Matthew Moyle-Croft wrote:

> One of the more interesting applications I've seen of VPLS is for building big IXes.
> 
> AMS-IX has migrated entirely to a VPLS network.   It appears to be much more stable and resilient than a spanning-tree based network.  Given that AMS-IX peaks at around 1Tbps of traffic and has 649 or so ports - it's a pretty good indication of the scale you can go for a single domain.  


AMS-IX wasn't STP based - well - it was once, but we're talking 2003/2004 timeframe, i.e. not for ages.

prior to migrating to VPLS, they used a combination of optical cross-connect (Glimmerglass photonic switch) and Foundry/Brocade's proprietary VSRP which effectively meant they built out redundant A/B networks and optically switched between the two.
migrating to VPLS solved some of the unique scaling challenges that they had with the architecture they had.


TRILL/Rbridges would have been ideal for AMS-IX but for the fact that it wasn't yet close enough in terms of shipping product to meet their required timeframes given the continued growth trajectory of traffic & 10G ports.
likewise the optical transceiver form factor preferred for large-port-count 10G switches (SFP+) don't yet provide 10G DWDM connectivity which they also required since they are spread out over multiple physical locations with limited dark fiber between sites.

business/timing reasons aside, it is a demonstration of how a single L2 domain can scale to Tbps of traffic.


> Admittedly IXes are a bit special in terms of needs (ie. single mac per customer with filters).

certainly there are unique requirements to IXes.



cheers,

lincoln.