Ethernet Automatic Protection Switching

Last updated

Ethernet Automatic Protection Switching (EAPS) is used to create a fault tolerant topology by configuring a primary and secondary path for each VLAN.

Contents

Invented by Extreme Networks and submitted to IETF as RFC3619. The idea is to provide highly available Ethernet switched rings (commonly used in Metro Ethernet) to replace legacy TDM based transport protection fiber rings. Other implementations include Ethernet Protection Switching Ring (EPSR) [1] by Allied Telesis which enhanced EAPS to provide full protected transport of IP Triple Play services (voice, video and internet traffic) for xDSL/FTTx deployments. EAPS/EPSR is the most widely deployed Ethernet protection switching solution deployed with major multi-vendor inter-operability support. The EAPS/EPSR are the basis of the ITU G.8032 Ethernet Protection recommendation.

Operation

A ring is formed by configuring a Domain. Each domain has a single "master node" and many "transit nodes". Each node will have a primary port and a secondary port, both known to be able to send control traffic to the master node. Under normal operation, the secondary port on the master is blocked for all protected vlans.

When there is a link down situation, the devices that detect the failure send a control message to the master, and the master will then unblock the secondary port and instruct the transits to flush their forwarding databases. The next packets sent by the network can then be flooded and learned out of the (now enabled) secondary port without any network disruption.

Fail-over times are demonstrably in the region of 50ms.

The same switch can belong to multiple domains and thus multiple rings. However, these act as independent entities and can be controlled individually.

EAPS v2

EAPSv2 is configured and enabled to avoid the potential of super-loops in environments where multiple EAPS domains share a common link. EAPSv2 works using the concept of a controller and partner mechanism. Shared port status is verified using health PDUs exchanged by controller and partner. When a shared link goes down, the configured Controller will open only one segment port for each of the protected VLANs, keeping all other segment ports in a blocking state. This state is maintained as long as the Controller fails to receive the health PDUs over the (broken) shared link.

Although not supported by Extreme Networks, it is possible to complete this shared link with non-EAPS (but tag-aware) switches between the Controller and Partner.

When the shared link is restored, the Controller can then unblock its ports, the masters will see their hello packets, and the rings will be protected by their respective masters.

See also

Related Research Articles

A broadcast domain is a logical division of a computer network, in which all nodes can reach each other by broadcast at the data link layer. A broadcast domain can be within the same LAN segment or it can be bridged to other LAN segments.

The Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is a network protocol that builds a loop-free logical topology for Ethernet networks. The basic function of STP is to prevent bridge loops and the broadcast radiation that results from them. Spanning tree also allows a network design to include backup links providing fault tolerance if an active link fails.

A virtual local area network (VLAN) is any broadcast domain that is partitioned and isolated in a computer network at the data link layer. In this context, virtual refers to a physical object recreated and altered by additional logic, within the local area network. VLANs work by applying tags to network frames and handling these tags in networking systems – creating the appearance and functionality of network traffic that is physically on a single network but acts as if it is split between separate networks. In this way, VLANs can keep network applications separate despite being connected to the same physical network, and without requiring multiple sets of cabling and networking devices to be deployed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medium access control</span> Service layer in IEEE 802 network standards

In IEEE 802 LAN/MAN standards, the medium access control (MAC), also called media access control, is the layer that controls the hardware responsible for interaction with the wired or wireless transmission medium. The MAC sublayer and the logical link control (LLC) sublayer together make up the data link layer. The LLC provides flow control and multiplexing for the logical link, while the MAC provides flow control and multiplexing for the transmission medium.

IEEE 802.1X is an IEEE Standard for port-based network access control (PNAC). It is part of the IEEE 802.1 group of networking protocols. It provides an authentication mechanism to devices wishing to attach to a LAN or WLAN.

In telecommunications, trunking is a technology for providing network access to multiple clients simultaneously by sharing a set of circuits, carriers, channels, or frequencies, instead of providing individual circuits or channels for each client. This is reminiscent to the structure of a tree with one trunk and many branches. Trunking in telecommunication originated in telegraphy, and later in telephone systems where a trunk line is a communications channel between telephone exchanges.

Resilient Packet Ring (RPR), as defined by IEEE standard 802.17, is a protocol designed for the transport of data traffic over optical fiber ring networks. The standard began development in November 2000 and has undergone several amendments since its initial standard was completed in June 2004. The amended standards are 802.17a through 802.17d, the last of which was adopted in May 2011. It is designed to provide the resilience found in SONET and Synchronous Digital Hierarchy networks but, instead of setting up circuit oriented connections, provides a packet based transmission, in order to increase the efficiency of Ethernet and IP services.

IEEE 802.1Q, often referred to as Dot1q, is the networking standard that supports virtual local area networking (VLANs) on an IEEE 802.3 Ethernet network. The standard defines a system of VLAN tagging for Ethernet frames and the accompanying procedures to be used by bridges and switches in handling such frames. The standard also contains provisions for a quality-of-service prioritization scheme commonly known as IEEE 802.1p and defines the Generic Attribute Registration Protocol.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metro Ethernet</span> Metropolitan area network based on Ethernet standards

A metropolitan-area Ethernet, Ethernet MAN, carrier Ethernet or metro Ethernet network is a metropolitan area network (MAN) that is based on Ethernet standards. It is commonly used to connect subscribers to a larger service network or for internet access. Businesses can also use metropolitan-area Ethernet to connect their own offices to each other.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Router on a stick</span> Router that has a single connection to a network

A router on a stick, also known as a one-armed router, is a router that has a single physical or logical connection to a network. It is a method of inter-VLAN routing where one router is connected to a switch via a single cable. The router has physical connections to the broadcast domains where one or more VLANs require the need for routing between them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Computer network</span> Network that allows computers to share resources and communicate with each other

A computer network is a set of computers sharing resources located on or provided by network nodes. Computers use common communication protocols over digital interconnections to communicate with each other. These interconnections are made up of telecommunication network technologies based on physically wired, optical, and wireless radio-frequency methods that may be arranged in a variety of network topologies.

Provider Backbone Bridge Traffic Engineering (PBB-TE) is a computer networking technology specified in IEEE 802.1Qay, an amendment to the IEEE 802.1Q standard. PBB-TE adapts Ethernet to carrier class transport networks. It is based on the layered VLAN tags and MAC-in-MAC encapsulation defined in IEEE 802.1ah, but it differs from PBB in eliminating flooding, dynamically created forwarding tables, and spanning tree protocols. Compared to PBB and its predecessors, PBB-TE behaves more predictably and its behavior can be more easily controlled by the network operator, at the expense of requiring up-front connection configuration at each bridge along a forwarding path. PBB-TE Operations, Administration, and Management (OAM) is usually based on IEEE 802.1ag. It was initially based on Nortel's Provider Backbone Transport (PBT).

A broadcast storm or broadcast radiation is the accumulation of broadcast and multicast traffic on a computer network. Extreme amounts of broadcast traffic constitute a broadcast storm. It can consume sufficient network resources so as to render the network unable to transport normal traffic. A packet that induces such a storm is occasionally nicknamed a Chernobyl packet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Private VLAN</span> Computer network security technique

Private VLAN, also known as port isolation, is a technique in computer networking where a VLAN contains switch ports that are restricted such that they can only communicate with a given uplink. The restricted ports are called private ports. Each private VLAN typically contains many private ports, and a single uplink. The uplink will typically be a port connected to a router, firewall, server, provider network, or similar central resource.

Sercos III is the third generation of the Sercos interface, a standardized open digital interface for the communication between industrial controls, motion devices, input/output devices (I/O), and Ethernet nodes, such as PCs. Sercos III applies the hard real-time features of the Sercos interface to Ethernet. It is based upon and conforms to the Ethernet standard. Work began on Sercos III in 2003, with vendors releasing first products supporting it in 2005.

Ethernet Ring Protection Switching (ERPS) is an effort at ITU-T under G.8032 Recommendation to provide sub-50ms protection and recovery switching for Ethernet traffic in a ring topology and at the same time ensuring that there are no loops formed at the Ethernet layer. This ITU-T specification is directly based on and derived from the Ethernet Automatic Protection Switching technology developed and patented by Extreme Networks. G.8032v1 supported a single ring topology and G.8032v2 supports multiple rings/ladder topology.

IEEE 802.1aq is an amendment to the IEEE 802.1Q networking standard which adds support for Shortest Path Bridging (SPB). This technology is intended to simplify the creation and configuration of Ethernet networks while enabling multipath routing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Optical mesh network</span> Optical network using a mesh topology

An optical mesh network is a type of optical telecommunications network employing wired fiber-optic communication or wireless free-space optical communication in a mesh network architecture.

Link protection is designed to safeguard networks from failure. Failures in high-speed networks have always been a concern of utmost importance. A single fiber cut can lead to heavy losses of traffic and protection-switching techniques have been used as the key source to ensure survivability in networks. Survivability can be addressed in many layers in a network and protection can be performed at the physical layer, Layer 2 and Layer 3 (IP).

Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) is a set of standards under development by the Time-Sensitive Networking task group of the IEEE 802.1 working group. The TSN task group was formed in November 2012 by renaming the existing Audio Video Bridging Task Group and continuing its work. The name changed as a result of the extension of the working area of the standardization group. The standards define mechanisms for the time-sensitive transmission of data over deterministic Ethernet networks.

References

  1. "How to configure EPSR" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-06-24. Retrieved 2013-09-10.

Further reading