Technical White Paper for S8500 Series

Switch Selective QinQ Features

Huawei Technologies Co, Ltd.

 Technical White Paper for S8500 Series Switch Selective QinQ Features

Table of Contents

1 Foreword ........................................................................................................................................ 1
1.1 Service development imposes new requirements on broadband access networks............. 1
1.2 QinQ effectively supports broadband multi-service .............................................................. 2

2 Development Direction of the QinQ technology – Selective QinQ........................................... 4

3 Introduction to S8500 QinQ Features and Application Scenarios ........................................... 5

Appendix A Acronyms and Abbreviations .................................................................................... 8

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 Technical White Paper for S8500 Series Switch Selective QinQ Features

Technical White Paper for S8500 Series

Switch Selective QinQ

Abstract: This paper describes the requirements of service development of carriers on QinQ, main
features of the selective QinQ technology, and the features of selective QinQ functions and
its application scenarios supported by S8500 series switches of Huawei.
Keywords: VLAN, multi service, selective QinQ, ACL, S8500

1 Foreword

1.1 Service development imposes new requirements on

broadband access networks

With the continuous development of various IP and transmission technologies, the

number of Internet users keeps on increasing. But the operation modes of traditional
broadband services also gradually show their defects, of which, the most outstanding is
that the growth rate of CAPEX and OPEX of carriers is higher than the that of users, and
the APRU closely concerned by carriers keeps on decreasing. So carriers strongly wish to
provide differentiated and abundant services to gain more profits.

With the development of various application technologies, enterprise users are more and
more dependent on the services provided by networks. They hope networks can provide
secure and reliable dedicated lines, VoIP and video conference services to reduce the
operation costs of enterprises. Meanwhile, personal users are no longer satisfied with the
simple Internet surfing or FTP downloading services from Internet, but expect to get better
experience from multimedia in networks, including high-quality IPTV, video chatting and
real-time game.

With the large-scale deployment of NGN/3G, the construction of NGN/3G bearer networks
are concerned by carriers. If NGN/3G services can be carried through broadband access
networks, the deployment of NGN/3G can expedite and the cost of the whole network
solution can decrease greatly.

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 Technical White Paper for S8500 Series Switch Selective QinQ Features

All these demands require that the broadband access networks can carry abundant
services. In order to carry these services with different QoS requirements in a single
access network, the broadband access network must have effective service identification
and isolation capabilities. As the most effective service identification and isolation
technology at present, the VLAN technology is the fundament for multi-service
implementation. With the large-scale increase of broadband users and growth of service
types, the traditional VLAN technology can no longer meet the requirements of service
implementation. In this background, the QinQ technology emerges. The QinQ technology
effectively expands the number of VLANs, which can support up to 4K*4K VLANs or even
more.

1.2 QinQ effectively supports broadband multi-service

Limitation and new requirements of VLAN

VLAN is originally a virtual workgroup concept. It realizes the isolation between different
workgroups in one switch and these workgroups share one switch. All users in VLAN can
communicate with each other, but the number of VLANs is limited to 4096. For a single
access switch, 4096 VLANs is completely enough. But for a large layer-2 network, or a
broadband access network completely deployed with PUPV, 4096 VLANs are obviously
not enough. The QinQ is proposed to dissolve the VLAN limitation.

During the application and deployment of layer 2 VC dedicated lines such as the MPLS
layer-2 VPN, VPLS, VLL and CCC, the limitation of VLAN is also encountered. On the one
hand, the VLAN limitation restricts the number of VCs. On the other hand, the actual
VLAN conflicts are also present between CE users. These defects also need to be solved
on the basis of the QinQ.

In the BRAS of present networks, each port can support 4096 VLAN terminations, which
basically meets the requirements of Internet access. But with the deployment of telecom
multi-service, the PSPV concept is proposed. One user may need various services and
multiple VLANs. So the convergence switches of broadband access networks need to
support the QinQ and BRAS needs to support the termination on QinQ.

What is QinQ?

The QinQ technology is also called the Stacked VLAN or Double VLAN. This technology
complies with the IEEE 802.1ad standard. It encapsulates the user private network VLAN
Tag in the public network VLAN Tag to make messages traverse the backbone network

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 Technical White Paper for S8500 Series Switch Selective QinQ Features

(public network) of carriers with two layers of VLAN Tags. In public networks, messages
are transmitted only according to the external VLAN Tag (namely the public network
VLAN Tag) and the private network VLAN Tag is shielded.

The structure of messages with single layer LVAN Tag is as shown in Figure 1:

DA SA ETYPE(8100)用户VL AN TAG ETYPE DATA FCS

(6B) (6B) (2B) (2B) (2B) (0~1500B) (4B)

Figure 1 Message with User VLAN Tag

The structure of messages with two layers of LVAN Tags is as shown in Figure 2:

DA SA ETYPE(8100) Nested Vlan Tag ETYPE User ETYPE DATA FCS

(6B) (6B) (2B) (2B) (8100) Vlan Tag (2B) (0~1500B) (4B)

(2B) (2B)

Figure 2 Message encapsulated with external VLAN tag

Technically, the QinQ completely supports multi-layer stacking without limitation. It is only
restricted by the length of the Ethernet message. So, the QinQ features excellent
expandability. QinQ has many different names in the Industry, including Tag in Tag, VLAN
VPN, StackVLAN and SVLAN.

When a layer of VLAN tag is added to QinQ, the number of covered user VLANs will
increase 4096 folds. So, two layers of VLAN tags can support 4K*4K VLANs. Generally,
two layers of VLANs are enough to meet most requirements.

Compared with the MPLS-based layer 2 VPN, the QinQ technology has the
following features:

z Provide users with a simpler layer 2 VPN tunnel;

z Do not need the support of the signaling protocols. The QinQ technology can be
realized through pure static configuration.
z Because the realization of the QinQ technology is based on the Trunk port concept in
the 802.1Q protocol, equipment in tunnels must support the 802.1Q protocol.

The QinQ technology can mainly solve the following problems:

z Easing the increasing deficiency of public network VLAN ID resources;

z Users can plan their own private VLAN IDs and will not conflict with public network
VLAN IDs;

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 Technical White Paper for S8500 Series Switch Selective QinQ Features

z Providing small-sized MANs or enterprise networks with a relatively simple layer 2

VPN solution.

The implementation process of the QinQ technology is as shown in Figure 3:

Figure 3 Functions of QinQ

Uplink messages in the CE switch as shown in Figure 3 contain the internal VLAN tags.
When these messages reach the convergence switch, the convergence switch can mark
these messages with corresponding external labels according to different switch ports. So
each port of the convergence switch can support the access of 4K VLANs.

2 Development Direction of the QinQ technology

– Selective QinQ

Realization modes of the QinQ technology

QinQ is implemented in the port-based QinQ mode or traffic classification-based selective

QinQ mode.

The implementation mechanism of port-based QinQ:

When the port receives a message, no matter whether the message contains the VLAN
Tag or not, the switch will label the message with the VLAN Tag of the port default VLAN.
In this way, if the received message has already contained a VLAN Tag, the message will

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 Technical White Paper for S8500 Series Switch Selective QinQ Features

become a dual-Tag message. If the received message is untagged, the message will
become a message with the default VLAN Tag of the port. Because the port-based QinQ
is relatively easy to use, all layer 3 switches of mainstream manufactures of the Industry
support the port-based QinQ.

The defect of port-based QinQ is that the encapsulation mode of external VLAN Tag is too
rigid and cannot be selected according to service types. So this kind of QinQ cannot
effectively support the flexible operation of multi-service.

The implementation mechanism of traffic classification-based selective QinQ:

The traffic-based QinQ feature (Selected QinQ) can select whether to label the external
VLAN tag and which external VLAN tag should be labeled according to the traffic
classification result. For example, the selective QinQ feature can be realized according to
the user VLAN tag, MAC address, IP protocol, source address, destination address,
priority level or the port number of application programs. With the above traffic
classification methods, the external VLAN tag of messages can be encapsulated
according to different users, services and priority levels. So traffic classification-based
selective QinQ can implement different bearer solutions for various services.

3 Introduction to S8500 QinQ Features and

Application Scenarios

S8500 QinQ Features

Except for supporting port-based QinQ, S8500 series core switches (8505, 8508 and
8512) also support the traffic-based QinQ feature (Selected QinQ). The switches can
select whether to label the external VLAN tag and which external VLAN tag should be
labeled according to the traffic classification result. For example, the selective QinQ
feature can be implemented according to the user VLAN tag, MAC address, IP protocol,
source address, destination address, priority level or the port number of application
programs. With the above traffic classification methods, the external VLAN tag of
messages can be encapsulated according to different users, services and priority levels.
So different bearer solutions can be implemented for different services.

Bearer solutions and application scenarios that can be selected by S8500 selective
QinQ

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 Technical White Paper for S8500 Series Switch Selective QinQ Features

QinQ is implemented in S8500 and services are distributed in S8500 with selective QinQ
functions. The selective QinQ can distribute services according to the following rules:

1) Distribution according to the VLAN intervals of port: Fox example, the VLAN ranges
of PC, STB and Internet cafe are 1K~1K, 1K~2K and 2K~3K respectively.

2) Distribution according to the protocol number of messages: Fox example, PC adopts

the PPPoE protocol and STB adopts the IPoE protocol. These terminals uplink
through one VLAN. QinQ can distribute according to different protocol numbers of
PPPoE and IPoE messages.

3) Distribution according to the destination IP address of messages: For different

service application messages with same source IP address and message
encapsulation, such as the messages generated in the SoftPhone of PC, selective
QinQ can distribute services according to the destination IP addresses of messages.

4) Distribution according to the intervals of internal labels of QinQ: In some networking

modes of cascaded switches, the connected switches have implemented the
port-based QinQ. In order to implement service distribution, the selective QinQ can
distribute services according to the intervals of internal VLAN labels of QinQ. The
above application scenarios are visually as shown in Figure 4:

Figure 4 Multi-service identity, labeling and distribution by S8500 selective QinQ

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 Technical White Paper for S8500 Series Switch Selective QinQ Features

S8500 Selective QinQ has very good interoperability

By matching specific ACL traffic rules in ports, the selective QinQ functions of S8500 can
not only set but also modify the external VLAN tags of messages.

TPID (Tag Protocol Identifier) is a field in VLAN Tag. The IEEE802.1Q protocol specifies
the value of this field to 0x8100.

The structure of Tag messages of Ethernet frames defined by the IEEE 802.1Q protocol is
as shown below:

6 bytes 6 bytes 4 bytes 46 ~1500 bytes 4 bytes

DA SA Tag Frame Load FCS

TPID User Priority CFI VLAN ID

2 bytes 3 bits 1bit 12 bits

Figure 5 Tag Message Structure of Ethernet Frames

S8500 series switches adopt the TPID value (0x8100) specified by the protocol by default.
Some manufacturers set the TPID value of the external Tag of QinQ messages to 0x9100
or 0x9200. In order to be compatible with these devices, S8500 series switches provide
the port-based adjustable TPID value function for QinQ messages.

Users can set the ports connected to the public network side to VLAN-VPAN uplink ports.
The TPID values of these ports can be configured by users. When the VLAN-VPN uplink
ports receive messages, the ports replace the TPID values in the external VLAN Tag of
messages with the value set by the user. So QinQ messages transmitted to the public
network can be recognized by the equipment of other manufacturers.

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 Technical White Paper for S8500 Series Switch Selective QinQ Features

Appendix A Acronyms and Abbreviations

Acronym/Abbreviation Full Spelling

ARPU Average Revenue Per User

ACL Access Control List
PVC Permanent Virtual Channel
VPN Virtual Private Network
TPID Tag Protocol Identifier
QoS Quality Of Service

QinQ 802.1Q in 802.1Q

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