Each CEP supports the configuration of
connections or mappings between individual CVLANs and multiple VMANs.
This provides the following benefits:
Each physical port supports multiple customers (each
connecting to a separate VMAN).
Each switch supports many more customer VMANs using CEPs
instead of CNPs.
To define the connections between CVLANs and SVLANs, each CEP uses a
dedicated CVID map, which defines the supported CVIDs on the CEP and the destination
VMAN for each CVID. For example, you can configure a CEP to forward traffic from five
specific CVLANs to VMAN A and from ten other specific CVLANs to VMAN B. During VMAN
configuration, certain ports are added to the VMAN as CEPs, and certain CVIDs on those
ports are mapped to the VMAN. To enable customer use of a VMAN, service providers must
communicate the enabled CVIDs to their customers. The customers must use those CVIDs to
access the VMAN.
Note
The CEPterm is
defined in the IEEE 802.1ad standard and is also called a C-tagged service interface. The CEP operation is
similar to a MEF 13 UNI Type 1.1.