Q-in-Q Tunneling for ELS support on Juniper Switches
In a network where Service Providers run customers’ VLAN traffic over their backbone network, there is a possibility of VLAN crushing if different customers use overlapping VLAN IDs. With Q-in-Q Tunneling Providers can segregate different customers’ VLAN traffic on a link (for example, if the customers use overlapping VLAN IDs) or bundle different customer VLANs into a single service VLAN.
With Q-in-Q tunneling, providers can segregate or bundle customer traffic into fewer VLANs or different VLANs by adding another layer of 802.1Q tags. Q-in-Q tunneling is useful when customers have overlapping VLAN IDs because the customer’s 802.1Q (dot1Q) VLAN tags are prepended by the service VLAN (S-VLAN) tag.
This makes it a suitable solution for service providers since it gives them freedom on which S-VLANs to use without changing customers’ C-VLANs and customers can use any VLANs they want.
How Q-in-Q Tunneling Works
In Q-in-Q tunneling, as a packet travels from a customer VLAN (C-VLAN) to a service provider’s VLAN (S-VLAN), a customer-specific 802.1Q tag (Customer’s S-VLAN tag) is added to the packet. This additional tag is used to segregate traffic into service-provider-defined service VLANs (S-VLANs). The original customer 802.1Q tag (C-VLAN(s) tag(s)) of the packet remains and is transmitted transparently, passing through the service provider’s network. As the packet leaves the S-VLAN in the downstream direction, the extra 802.1Q tag (Customer’s S-VLAN tag) is removed.
This solution has been illustrated on a Juniper EX-2300-C Switch with Enhanced Layer 2 Software (ELS) support.
There are multiple ways Q-in-Q tunneling maps C-VLAN(s) to S-VLAN(s).
- All-in-one bundling
- Many-to-one bundling
- Many-to-many bundling
- Mapping a specific interface
In this tutorial, only “All-in-one bundling” will be covered.
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