Provider Bridge Mode

When the bridge mode is set to provider-bridge, switches in a service provider network relay packets based on service VLANs (using S-TAGs) rather than customer VLANs (using C-TAGs). The VLAN configuration now operates over the S-VLAN for relay operations instead of the C-VLAN. Customer-provided STP and MVRP addresses are preserved in the packets, but are ignored in the provider network. The provider network can be configured to use its own Spanning Tree and MVRP addresses to switch packets around the S-VLAN.

Any customer traffic received on a provider network ingress port will be placed in the S-VLAN defined for that port, and will be delivered to the customer network connected to the provider network egress port. For bidirectional VLAN traffic between the two remote customer networks, both of these provider ports must be configured on the same service VLAN.

Configuring a Provider Bridge shows an example configuration for transporting any number of received customer VLANs across a provider network in provider bridge mode. This configuration would apply to one of the switches in the provider network. A similar configuration must be executed on each provider switch in the path to the destination customer network. There must be an S-VLAN configured for each egress port to a customer network.

Provider Bridge Configuration Example illustrates the following example configuration:

Provider Edge Switch 1:

set bridge mode provider-bridge
set vlan create 400
set port vlan ge.1.1-2 400 modify-egress
set vlan egress 400 ge.1.1 untagged
set vlan egress 400 ge.1.2 tagged
set vlan create 500
set port vlan ge.1.2-3 500 modify-egress
set vlan egress 500 ge.1.3 untagged
set vlan egress 500 ge.1.2 tagged

Provider Edge Switch 2:

set bridge mode provider-bridge
set vlan create 400
set port vlan ge.2.2-3 400 modify-egress
set vlan egress 400 ge.2.1 untagged
set vlan egress 400 ge.2.2 tagged
set vlan create 500
set port vlan ge.2.2-3 500 modify-egress
set vlan egress 500 ge.2.3 untagged
set vlan egress 500 ge.2.2 tagged

To clear provider bridge mode, revert your provider network by setting each bridge back to customer bridge mode. Use the show bridge mode command to view the current bridge mode.