IxNetwork Layer 2 VPN Emulation Software

Ixia's IxNetwork Layer 2 Virtual Private Network (Layer 2 VPN) Emulation Software is an add-on component to Ixia's LDP Emulation Software that simulates the transport of Layer 2 frames over MPLS. Both point-to-point Martini and any-to-any VPLS (Virtual Private LAN Services) VPNs are supported per their respective IETF Drafts. Complex Layer 2 VPN topologies can be simulated by using Ixia's Layer 2 VPN emulation in combination with Ixia's Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) emulations (such as OSPF and IS-IS). Ixia's flexible Graphical User Interface facilitates a variety of configuration modes. Graphical-based wizards facilitate the quick and simple set up of complex and large L2VPN simulations.

Hundreds of Layer 2 VPN sessions and hundreds of thousands of Forwarding Equivalence Classes (FECs) can be advertised from a single Ixia test port. In addition, Virtual Circuit (VC) FEC entries, emulated Layer 2 groups, and sessions can be flapped to simulate realistic network scenarios.

The Layer 2 VPN emulation software is supported on a number of Ixia Load Modules which feature a CPU per port. In addition, multiple Ixia protocol emulations can be run concurrently on each test port, and wire-speed traffic can be generated to simultaneously test the data and control planes.

Specifications

Feature	Description
L2 VPN Signaling	LDP Extended Martini discovery sessions
Label Advertising Mode	Downstream Unsolicited
Emulated VC Type	Frame Relay (Type 1), ATMAAL5 (Type 2), ATMXCell (Type 3), VLAN (Type 4) - default, Ethernet (Type 5), HDLC (Type 6), PPP (Type 7), Circuit Emulation Service over MPLS (CEM) - CEM (Type 8), ATMVCC (Type 9), ATMVPC (Type A), VPLS (Type B), IP, SAToP-E1, SAToP-T1, SAToP-E3, SAToP-T3, CESoPSN-BASIC, CESoPSN-CAS, FrameRelayRFC4619
FEC Type	PW Id (FEC-128) Generalized PW Id (FEC-129)
VC FEC Parameters	General: Peer, VC ID, Description, Label Start, and Label Increment Mode Ethernet: MTU ATM: ATM Present, Max # of ATM Cells CEM: CEM Payload Enabled, CEM Payload value, CEM Option Present Enabled, and CEM Option value
Provisioning Model	BGP Auto-discovery Manual configuration
PW Status Signaling	Enable/Disable PW Up/Down profile
PW Status Codes	PW Not Forwarding (0x1) AC Rx Fault (0x2) AC Tx Fault (0x4) PW Rx Fault (0x8) PW Tx Fault (0x10)
Flapping	Sessions, emulated Layer 2 groups, and individual VCFEC ranges can be flapped on demand
Labels	Create, advertise, and withdraw VC FEC entries. VC FEC information, peers and label spaces displayed for learned labels. VC FEC learned labels can be filtered based on Peer address, Label, Group ID, VC type, VC ID, and interface description
Emulated VC Encapsulations	Ethernet, VLAN, AAL5, Frame Relay, QinQ (to support more than 4K VCs in a single interface)
Diagnostics	Elapsed time (msec) for advertising or withdrawing FEC entries, notifications, and debug messages

Key Features

• Establish and maintain hundreds of adjacencies per port
• Setup large, complex, multi-protocol L2 VPN topologies quickly with an easy-to-use wizard
• Configure large entries for VC FEC ranges quickly with Ixia's spreadsheet entry mode
• Support QinQ encapsulation to support more than 4K VCs per physical interface
• Modify configuration entries while state machine is running, to simulate realistic network conditions
• View and filter learned labels
• Generate wire-speed MPLS traffic for different Layer 2 VC types
• Generate MAC TLVs for VPLS emulations
• Create Tcl configuration code simply and easily by using ScriptGen
• Analyze real-time MPLS traffic on a packet-by-packet basis
• PW Status signaling during VC setup
• Advertise BGP L2VPN NRLI to verify BGP auto-discovery mechanisms for LDP-based VPLS.

Emulation Flexibility

Ixia's Layer 2 VPN emulation has the flexibility to emulate one or more Label Switch Routers (LSRs), as well as generate up to thousands of VC FEC ranges on a single port. In addition, many of the sessions and the VC FEC attributes are exposed in the GUI, enabling users to create customized configurations. Likewise, a configuration can be easily converted to Tcl commands with Ixia's ScriptGen utility.

Scalability

Thousands of LDP sessions can be supported on an Ixia chassis populated with Ixia's CPU per port Load Modules. Multiple protocols can be run simultaneously in conjunction with line-rate traffic. In addition, sessions and FEC ranges can be flapped to dynamically assess how MPLS routers will behave under adverse network conditions.

Easy-to-Use Interface

The IxNetwork GUI facilitates the quick and easy configuration of routing protocol emulations. Configuration wizards provide a graphical-based, step-by-step process for initial set up of small to large scale test topologies across multiple Ixia test ports. The L2 VPN wizard significantly simplifies the set up of complex MPLS VPN scenarios across multiple protocols including LDP, RSVP-TE, OSPF, and IS-IS. In addition, IxNetwork's spreadsheet GUI paradigm provides for the entry, editing, and viewing of large configurations across multiple test ports. Spreadsheet-like commands are available to quickly scale a configuration or apply operations across multiple values. Once a network topology is created, it can be copied easily across any supported Ixia test port.

Tcl Automation

Automated scripts can be quickly created using the Tcl Automation environment. Alternatively, the IxNetwork GUI can be used to set up a test configuration, then Ixia's ScriptGen utility used to translate the GUI settings to Tcl code with minimal commands. Tcl support is available on Windows, Linux, and UNIX platforms.

Requirements

• IxNetwork client application
• LDP emulation software
• RSVP-TE Emulation (optional)
• OSPF or ISIS emulation software

IETF Standards

• LDP Specification according to RFC 3036
• LDP Applicability according to RFC 3037
• LDP State Machine according to RFC 3215
• Transport of Layer 2 Frames Over MPLS, RFC 4906
• Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) Using Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) Signaling, RFC 4762
• Provisioning, Autodiscovery, and Signaling in L2VPNs, draft-ietf-l2vpn-signaling-08

Pseudo-wire emulations:

• Encapsulation Methods for Transport of Ethernet Frames over MPLS Networks, RFC 4448
• Encapsulation Methods for Transport of ATM over MPLS Networks, RFC 4717
• Encapsulation Methods for Transport of Frame Relay over MPLS Networks, RFC 4619
• Encapsulation Methods for Transport of PPP/HDLC over MPLS Networks, RFC 4618
• SONET/SDH CES over MPLS Encapsulation, RFC 5143

Product Ordering Information

930-2008
IxNetwork, Optional Software, OSPFv2 Emulation; REQUIRES 930-1999; Includes Media Kit

930-2010
IxNetwork, Optional Software, IS-IS Emulation; REQUIRES 930-1999; Includes Media Kit

930-2014
IxNetwork, Optional Software, MPLS RSVP-TE Emulation; Includes Media Kit

930-2015
IxNetwork, Optional Software, MPLS LDP Emulation includes Layer 2 MPLS VPN and VPLS support; REQUIRES 930-1999; Includes Media Kit

930-2001
IxNetwork, Optional Software Bundle, IPv4 Routing Protocols; Includes 930-2005 BGP-4 Emulation, 930-2008 OSPFV2 Emulation, 930-2010 IS-IS Emulation, 930-2012 RIPV2 Emulation; REQUIRES 930-1999; Includes Media Kit

930-2003
IxNetwork, Optional Software Bundle, MPLS VPN; Includes 930-2006 Layer 3 MPLS/VPLS Support, 930-2014 RSVP-TE Emulation, 930-2015 LDP Emulation; REQUIRES 930-1999 and 930-2001 Optional Software Bundle, IPv4 Routing Protocols; Includes Media Kit

930-2052
IxNetwork, Optional Software, LDP extension to support FEC 129; REQUIRES: 930-1999 Base Software, 930-2005 BGP Emulation, 930-2006 BGP ext to support MPLS L3VPN/L2VPN/VPLS, 930-2015 LDP Emulation

Companion Test Automation Libraries:

928-0282
IxAutomate, Optional Software, L2 MPLS VPN (per Draft Martini) Test Suite

P/N: 915-1806-01 Rev E - April 2010

This material is for informational purposes only and subject to change without notice. It describes Ixia's present plans to develop and make available to its customers certain products, features and capabilities. Ixia is only obligated to provide those deliverables specifically included in a written agreement between Ixia and the customer.

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