RE: 802.17 RPR and L2 Ethernet interoperablity (Ethernet over RPR)

["Vinay Bannai" <bannai () pacbell net>]

> Hi,
>
> This is probably a fairly simply question, I'm probably just not quite
> groking the layers involved here.
>
> If I had the following setup:
>
> Endstation A -- Switch A === RPR Ring === Switch B -- Endstation B
>
> could there be a VLAN setup such that Endstations A and B are both in it,
> and can communicate as if they are on the same LAN segment? (And I mean
> natively. ie. not using an MPLS VPN). ie. Will the switches involved
> tranlate the different framing formats in use? Is this vendor dependent?
>
> Sam

According to the IEEE 802.17 PAR five criteria, RPR is supposed to satisfy
the bridging requirements. In other words, a RPR node on a RPR ring
connected to a ethernet switch as shown in your diagram should work
transparently. There should be no reason to require MPLS VPNs to make this
happen.

Having said that your mileage varies depending on the vendor. Most RPR
systems are targeted towards the metro space and the core and tend not to
use transparent bridging. MAC-in-MAC is one of the mechanisms being used to
"bridge" the network between 802.17 and 802.3 networks.

Vinay Bannai
Luminous Networks