Show 196 – EVPN Introduction & Use-Cases with Russ White + Jeff Tantsura

This week, Packet Pushers’ hosts Ethan Banks and Greg Ferro queue up a discussion about a new technology, exploring EVPN with Russ White & Jeff Tantsura from Ericsson. What’s EVPN? Well, it’s short for Ethernet VPN, and it’s a way of using BGP as a routing system for MAC addresses. If that sounds like SPB or TRILL, there are some comparisons that can be drawn, but overall, EVPN is rather different. Give the show a listen, as EVPN has a number of use-cases and broad industry support — it’s an an acronym you’re likely to see again.

Our Discussion

• What is EVPN?
• How is EVPN different from L2VPN services like EoMPLS or VPLS?
• How does EVPN work?
• What are the technical advantages of EVPN?
• What are the EVPN use-cases & benefits for the service provider?
• What about for the end customer?
• How far along in the IETF process has EVPN gotten?
• What vendors are showing support for EVPN? Are there any commercial products yet?
• Does an end user have to do anything special to support EVPN on their network? Or is it invisible to them like most service provider handoffs?
• How does EVPN relate to existing data center fabrics?

Links

• RFC 7209 – Requirements for EVPN (IETF)
• Draft-ietf-l2vpn-evpn-07 – BGP MPLS Based Ethernet VPN (IETF)
• NANOG 61 Presentation – Ethernet VPN (EVPN): Overlay Networks for Ethernet Services (Greg Hankins)
• https://www.nanog.org/sites/default/files/monday_general_hankins_vpn_2.pdf
• Greg’s Whitebox Networking e-book