IxN2X NG-mVPN Ingress Replication Emulation

An easy-to-use solution specifically designed for measuring the scalability and performance of Next Generation Multicast Virtual Private Network (NG-mVPN). This emulation target one of the NG-mVPN technologies, Ingress Replication.

Key Features

• Tests scalability and performance of NGmVPN network using Ingress Replication, BGP VPN.
• Integrated traffic mesh automates traffic creation with correct PDUs, labels and addresses using Setup Multicast VPN Productivity Application (973-0113).
• Extremely easy to set up and configure highly scalable tests using Setup Multicast VPN Productivity Application (973-0113).
• Emulates both customer edge (CE) switches/routers and provider (P) / provider edge (PE) routers.

Product Overview

The IxN2X NG-mVPN Ingress Replication Emulation software extends the VPN service offering to include the multicast VPN services. It is specifically designed to measure the scalability and performance of Ingress Replication NGmVPN solution on a router or collection of networking devices. It provides:

• An easy mechanism for simulating an attached core network to the Device under Test (DUT);
• Rapid configuration of many mVPNs across the DUT;
• A means to easily configure and build traffic streams between mVPN sites.

Using the IxN2X NG-mVPN Ingress Replication Emulation software, the following performance and scalability measurements can be made:

• Validate the PE functionality for different route types.
• Discover the number of PE routers that a DUT can peer with;
• Reveal the maximum number of mVPNs that can be supported by a DUT;
• Determine the maximum number of I-PMSI and S-PMSI tunnel that can be supported by a DUT;
• Measure traffic forwarding and flooding performance; and

NG-mVPN Ingress Replication Overview

NG-mVPN is the BGP/MPLS-based scheme for supporting multicast in a VPN. It is common terminology used for the evolution of the mVPN solutions. Before NG-mVPN, the Draft Rosen approach was used. Using the Draft Rosen approach, the service providers faced control and data plane scaling issues. They also had to maintain two routing/forwarding mechanisms; one for VPN unicast service and one for VPN multicast service. To overcome the scalability, reliability and functionality issues, a new architecture for NG-mVPNs and an accompanying draft BGP control plane for MVPNs were proposed.

NG-mVPN uses BGP as the control plane protocol to exchange all the necessary information to enable end-to-end C-multicast routing. Using BGP as the control plane protocol allows the service providers to leverage their knowledge and investment in managing BGP-MPLS VPN unicast service to offer VPN multicast services.

The main tasks of the BGP control plane include:

• Packet encapsulation over Provider (P) network—The customer multicast packets are encapsulated for delivery over the network.
• mVPN auto-discovery—A PE router automatically discovers the identity of the other PE routers that are a part of an mVPN.
• Distribution of P-tunnel information—A sender PE router advertises the type and identifier of the P-tunnel that it will be using for transmitting customer multicast VPN packets over the network.
• PE-PE C-multicast route exchange—A receiver PE router propagates PIM join message as C-multicast join message towards the VPN multicast sources.

NG-mVPN Ingress Replication Features

A new BGP address family called MCAST-VPN supports the auto-discovery operation of the NG-mVPN network. Any PE that participates in a BGP-based NG-mVPN network is required to send a BGP update message that contains an MCAST-VPN NLRI, along with a specific set of attributes.

NG-mVPNs use seven types of BGP-4 mVPN routes; the first five are used for auto-discovery and the remaining two for C-multicast protocol information exchange between PE routers. The intra-AS mechanisms provide auto-discovery/binding within a single AS. The intra-AS mechanisms also provide auto-discovery/binding across multiple AS's when non-segmented inter-AS tunnels are being used. The inter-AS mechanisms provide auto-discovery/binding across multiple AS's when segmented inter-AS tunnels are being used. Following are the auto-discovery routes, or A-D routes:

1. Intra-AS I-PMSI A-D Route
   All NG-mVPN PE routers create and advertise the Intra-AS AD route for each mVPN to which they are connected. These routes are used for advertising and learning intra-AS MVPN membership within an AS.
2. Inter-AS I-PMSI A-D Route
   An ASBR router initiates the Inter-AS I-PMSI A-D routes. These routes are used for advertising and learning inter-AS MVPN membership information. This route type will not be support by IxN2X application.
3. S-PMSI A-D route
   A sender PE initiates the S-PMSI A-D routes. These routes are used for initiating a selective P-tunnel for a particular (C-S, C-G) or by Ingress PE to announce C-flows bound specific P-Tunnels.
4. Leaf A-D route
   A receiver PE router initiates the Leaf A-D routes after it receives an S-PMSI A-D route with the 'leaf information required' flag set, from the sender PE router. These routes are used by the sender PE to discover the leaves of a selective P-tunnel and provide explicit tracking that enables a PE to announce itself as a receiver of a particular flow.
5. Source Active A-D route
   A PE router that discovers an active VPN multicast source initiates the Source Active A-D routes. These routes are used by PEs to learn the identity of active VPN multicast sources within the sites connected to it. This route type is applicable only for PIM-SM (ASM) when inter-site source-tree-only mode is used.

These 5 types of routes are also referred to as non-C-multicast mVPN routes. Following are the C-multicast mVPN routes:

1. Shared tree join route
   A receiver PE router initiates the Shared tree join routes when it receives a shared tree C-join (C-*, C-G) through its PE-CE interface.
2. Source tree join route
   A receiver PE router initiates the Source tree join routes when it receives a source tree C-join (C-S, C-G). A receiver PE router also initiates the Source tree join routes when it has a Shared tree join route and receives a Source active AD route.

Dynamic rt-import

Combine this emulation with Setup Multicast VPN Productivity Application (973-0113), gives a true dynamic rt-import behavior where rt-import values are dynamically extracted from the BGP UPDATE message and C-Multicast Join routes are sent with the rt-import values by IxN2X.

Highly Scalable

The IxN2X NG-mVPN Ingress Replication Emulation software scales to test the VPN and I-PMSI and S-PMSI tunnel limits of routers. Combine with Multicast VPN Setup Productivity Application, a very high scale scenario can be easiy configured.

Set to Scale Even Further

The software will continue to scale up with the underlying capabilities of the Ixia IxN2X system. IxN2X XS-2 cards will further increase the underlying protocol scalability.

The Right Measurements to the Right Level of Detail

The IxN2X NG-mVPN Ingress Replication Emulation Software not only creates an environment for measuring the performance and scalability of NG-mVPN network, it also provides the measurements that determine the performance of the VPNs.

Technical Specifications

The NG-mVPN Ingress Replication Emulation Software is designed according to the following specifications:

Standards

Multicast in MPLS/BGP IP VPNs, draft-ietf-l3vpn-2547bis-mcast-10—Extends RFC 4364 to define handling of IP multicast traffic

BGP Encodings and Procedures for Multicast in MPLS/BGP IP VPNs, draft-ietf-l3vpn-2547bis-mcast-bgp-08—Defines the BGP extensions

Application Programming Interface

An Application Programming Interface (API) is provided through the Tool command Language (Tcl). The API is intended to automate configuration tasks, create repeatable test sequences, or to integrate the test system into a larger test system.

An API client may run directly on the IxN2X System Controller, or may run on any other PC or UNIX workstation connected to the System Controller via a TCP/IP connection. API clients communicate with the System Controller via an included package of Tcl commands.

All functions available through the GUI are available via the API. Any changes made through the API are automatically reflected on the GUI.

Ordering

Software

973-0116
IxN2X, Optional Software, NextGen Multicast VPN Ingress Replication REQUIRES: 970-0002 Packets and Protocols Application, 973-0103 IPv4 Routing Emulation,973-0104 MPLS Signaling Emulation.

OPTIONAL:
It is highly recommend to buy 973-0113 IxN2X, Optional Software, Setup Multicast VPN Productivity Application with this emulation to get the full dynamic rt-import behavior.

Hardware

An IxN2X test system is composed of the following hardware components:

• System controller
• Chassis
• Test cards or load modules

973-0116 is supported on all:

• IxN2X XR/XR-2 Ethernet test cards
• IxN2X XS/XS-2 Ethernet test cards
• Ixia XM-based FUSION-enabled Ethernet Load Modules

973-0116 is not supported on IxN2X XP/XP-2 cards.

Your local Ixia Sales representative can provide more details on how to order and configure a test system.

P/N: 915-1039-01 Rev A - January, 2012

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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