[c-nsp] VPLS and BPDU

[Saku Ytti]

Not really c-nsp specific, but MEF doesn't appear to have public mailing
list and as this contains operational matters, it probably won't interest
nanog.

How are people handling BPDUs in their VPLS products? Reading MEF[0]
requirements, only product where you are allowed to tunnel BPDU, is
point-to-point, all multipoint either must peer or discard. Now maybe it is
just me, but I don't want my PE router to have hundred different MST, PVST,
RST, REP etc processes running. I don't want to change my PE MST instance
configs when ever customer does changes to their MST.
Infact, I don't want any flavour of any STP anywhere near my PE.

I want to tunnel BPDU over the VPLS network, as if my VPLS is stupid hub.
But as MEF does not allow this, it must silly idea. And I'm pretty sure my
customers expect to see BPDU pass the network transparently. I could, even
if my access is metro L2, do MAC-rewrite/L2PT to facilitate tunneling.

But surely MEF has given this lot more thought, so what am I missing?



[0] http://www.metroethernetforum.org/PDF_Documents/technical-specifications/MEF_6.1.1.pdf
-- 
  ++ytti