Method and Apparatus for Transporting Ethernet Services

Abstract

Frames of customer traffic may be encapsulated by adding Mac-in-Mac (MiM) encapsulation fields for transportation of the frames over a portion of provider network. The MiM encapsulated traffic may be further encapsulated using VPLS by adding VPLS encapsulation fields for transportation of the frames over another portion of the provider network. The MiM encapsulations use provider network_MAC addresses which enables VPLS MAC learning to occur using provider network MAC address space. MiM tunnels are mapped to VPLS service instances which are assigned pseudowire tags for transportation over the VPLS portion of provider network. The MiM header is retained when the MiM encapsulated frames are transported over the VPLS portion of the provider network. As VPLS frames exit the core network, the VPLS encapsulation fields are removed to extract the original MiM encapsulated frames for further transportation over the MiM portion of the provider network.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 - 22 . (canceled) 
     
     
         23 . A method of providing Ethernet services over an MPLS network, the method comprising:
 receiving, by a network element, a customer Ethernet frame, the customer Ethernet frame comprising a customer destination MAC address field, a customer source MAC address field and a service tag field;   determining a MAC-in-MAC service instance associated with the customer Ethernet frame based on a value of the service tag field;   encapsulating the customer Ethernet frame with a backbone destination MAC address field, a backbone source MAC address field and an IEEE 802.1ah I-Tag field corresponding to the MAC-in-MAC service instance;   determining a Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) service instance associated with the customer Ethernet frame based on the value of the service tag field; and   further encapsulating the customer Ethernet frame for transportation on the MPLS network with a pseudowire tag field corresponding to the VPLS service instance.   
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 23 , further comprising encapsulating the customer Ethernet frame with a VPLS tunnel tag associated with the backbone destination MAC address field of the encapsulated customer Ethernet frame. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 23 , further comprising forwarding the encapsulated customer Ethernet frame over a VPLS tunnel associated with the backbone destination MAC address field of the encapsulated customer Ethernet frame. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein VPLS MAC learning is based on backbone MAC addresses. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 23 , further comprising:
 receiving, by a network element, a VPLS and MAC-in-MAC encapsulated customer Ethernet frame comprising a VPLS pseudowire tag field, a backbone destination MAC address field, a backbone source MAC address field, an IEEE 802.1ah I-Tag field, a customer destination MAC address field, a customer source MAC address field and a service tag field;   removing the VPLS encapsulation to extract the MAC-in-MAC encapsulated customer Ethernet frame;   forwarding the MAC-in-MAC encapsulated customer Ethernet frame on an interface associated with the pseudowire tag field; and   removing the MAC-in-MAC encapsulation to extract the customer Ethernet frame; and   
       forwarding the customer Ethernet frame on an interface associated with the IEEE 802.1 ah I-Tag field. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein the I-Tag field carries an IEEE 802.1ah I-SID. 
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 28 , wherein the I-SID is associated with a VLAN and a port over which the customer frame is to be forwarded. 
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein content of the customer destination MAC address field is associated with a VLAN and a port over which the customer frame is to be forwarded. 
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein encapsulating the customer Ethernet frame comprises encapsulating the customer Ethernet frame with a B-Tag carrying a B-VID. 
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 31 , wherein content of the pseudowire tag field is associated with the B-VID. 
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein the pseudowire tag field comprises an MPLS label. 
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 24 , wherein the VPLS tunnel tag comprises an MPLS label. 
     
     
         35 . A method of providing Ethernet services over an MPLS network, the method comprising:
 receiving, by a network element, a VPLS and MAC-in-MAC encapsulated customer Ethernet frame comprising a VPLS pseudowire tag field, a backbone destination MAC address field, a backbone source MAC address field, an IEEE 802.1ah I-Tag field, a customer destination MAC address field, a customer source MAC address field and a service tag field;   removing the VPLS encapsulation to extract the MAC-in-MAC encapsulated customer Ethernet frame;   forwarding the MAC-in-MAC encapsulated customer Ethernet frame on an interface associated with the pseudowire tag field;   removing the MAC-in-MAC encapsulation to extract the customer Ethernet frame; and   forwarding the customer Ethernet frame on an interface associated with the IEEE 802.1 ah I-Tag field.   
     
     
         36 . A network for providing Ethernet services over an MPLS network, the network comprising:
 an Ethernet access network portion configured:
 to receive a customer Ethernet frame, the customer Ethernet frame comprising a customer destination MAC address field, a customer source MAC address field and a service tag field; 
 to determine a MAC-in-MAC service instance associated with the customer Ethernet frame based on a value of the service tag field; 
 to encapsulate the customer Ethernet frame with a backbone destination MAC address field, a backbone source MAC address field and an IEEE 802.1ah I-Tag field corresponding to the MAC-in-MAC service instance; and 
 to determine a Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) service instance associated with the customer Ethernet frame based on the value of the service tag field; and 
 a Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) network portion implementing a Virtual Private LAN service (VPLS), the MPLS network portion being configured to further encapsulate the customer Ethernet frame for transportation on the MPLS network with a pseudowire tag field corresponding to the VPLS service instance. 
   
     
     
         37 . The network of  claim 36 , wherein the MPLS network portion is configured to encapsulate the customer Ethernet frame with a VPLS tunnel tag associated with the backbone destination MAC address field of the encapsulated customer Ethernet frame. 
     
     
         38 . The network of  claim 36 , wherein the MPLS network portion is configured to forward the encapsulated customer Ethernet frame over a VPLS tunnel associated with the backbone destination MAC address field of the encapsulated customer Ethernet frame. 
     
     
         39 . The network of  claim 36 , wherein VPLS MAC learning is based on backbone MAC addresses. 
     
     
         40 . The network of  claim 36 , wherein the Ethernet access network portion is configured:
 to receive a VPLS and MAC-in-MAC encapsulated customer Ethernet frame comprising a VPLS pseudowire tag field, a backbone destination MAC address field, a backbone source MAC address field, an IEEE 802.1ah I-Tag field, a customer destination MAC address field, a customer source MAC address field and a service tag field;   to remove the VPLS encapsulation to extract the MAC-in-MAC encapsulated customer Ethernet frame;   to forward the MAC-in-MAC encapsulated customer Ethernet frame on an interface associated with the pseudowire tag field; and   to remove the MAC-in-MAC encapsulation to extract the customer Ethernet frame; and   to forward the customer Ethernet frame on an interface associated with the IEEE 802.1ah I-Tag field.   
     
     
         41 . The network of  claim 36 , wherein the I-Tag field carries an IEEE 802.1ah I-SID. 
     
     
         42 . The network of  claim 40 , wherein the I-SID is associated with a VLAN and a port over which the customer frame is to be forwarded. 
     
     
         43 . The network of  claim 36 , wherein content of the customer destination MAC address field is associated with a VLAN and a port over which the customer frame is to be forwarded. 
     
     
         44 . The network of  claim 36 , wherein the Ethernet access network portion is adapted to encapsulate the customer Ethernet frame by encapsulating the customer Ethernet frame with a B-Tag carrying a B-VID. 
     
     
         45 . The network of  claim 44 , wherein content of the pseudowire tag field is associated with the B-VID. 
     
     
         46 . The network of  claim 36 , wherein the pseudowire tag field comprises an MPLS label. 
     
     
         47 . The network of  claim 37 , wherein the VPLS tunnel tag comprises an MPLS label. 
     
     
         48 . A network for providing Ethernet services over an MPLS network, the network comprising an Ethernet access network portion configured:
 to receive, by a network element, a VPLS and MAC-in-MAC encapsulated customer Ethernet frame comprising a VPLS pseudowire tag field, a backbone destination MAC address field, a backbone source MAC address field, an IEEE 802.1ah I-Tag field, a customer destination MAC address field, a customer source MAC address field and a service tag field;   to remove the VPLS encapsulation to extract the MAC-in-MAC encapsulated customer Ethernet frame;   to forward the MAC-in-MAC encapsulated customer Ethernet frame on an interface associated with the pseudowire tag field;   to remove the MAC-in-MAC encapsulation to extract the customer Ethernet frame; and   to forward the customer Ethernet frame on an interface associated with the IEEE 802.1ah I-Tag field.