MAC-in-MAC Encapsulation

To forward customer traffic across the core network backbone, SPBM uses IEEE 802.1ah Provider Backbone Bridging (PBB) MAC-in-MAC encapsulation, which hides the customer MAC (CMAC) addresses in a backbone MAC (BMAC) address pair. MAC-in-MAC encapsulation defines a BMAC source address (BMAC-SA) and a BMAC destination address (BMAC-DA) to identify the backbone source and destination addresses.

The originating node creates a MAC header that is used for delivery from end to end. As the MAC header stays the same across the network, there is no need to swap a label or do a route lookup at each node, allowing the frame to follow the most efficient forwarding path end to end.

Encapsulating customer MAC addresses in BMAC addresses improves network scalability (no end-user CMAC learning is required in the core) and also significantly improves network robustness (loops in access networks do not impact forwarding results in the backbone infrastructure.)