[afnog] VPLS on C6500

[Mark Tinka]

On Tuesday, February 12, 2013 12:29:14 PM Christian M wrote:

> Hello,
> I am in process of implementing a network capable of MPLS
> VPLS and supporting 802.1Q tunneling on a Cisco 6506-E
> Chassis. I read that only  SIP-600 line cards with SPA
> support this on c6500, however when using sup2T, it is
> supported natively.
> 
> I currently have WS-SUP720-3B with WS-X6724-SFP line
> cards.
> 
> Has anyone done a similar setup? any suggestion on how to
> go abt it (upgrade sup or buy SIP line cards)?

VPLS has traditionally only been supported on the 7600 
platform, specifically, the ES and ES+ line cards.

As you rightly mention, the SUP-2T on the 6500 introduces 
support for native VPLS support, i.e., you don't require SIP 
or ES line cards on this platform to support VPLS. On the 
SUP-2T, VPLS is supported on the integrated PFC4 board.

In case you don't have the SUP-2T, you'll need the ES+ (ES 
won't work, only ES+) line cards which are now supported on 
the 6500 and 6500-E chassis, equipped with a SUP720-3B, 
SUP720-3BXL, SUPVS720-3C or SUPVS720-3CXL supervisor module.

The new 40Gbps-port 6900 line cards for the 6500 also 
support VPLS, but these require the SUP-2T supervisor 
module.

The WS-X6724 line card you have is what is called a "LAN 
card". While it's nice, cheap and dense, it's brain dead. A 
lot of the cool features you need with such a line card will 
run off the PFC located on the supervisor module, e.g., 
MPLS. So this line card won't give you VPLS, since the 
SUP720-3B and SUP720-3BXL don't support it on the PFC3.

I notice that the SUP-2T supports the WS-X67xx line cards, 
so it possible that you could get VPLS on them, but I'm not 
really sure. Suggest you check with TAC for confirmation, 
before you buy.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Mark.
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