LVTEP data plane

This section presents the details of the LVTEP data plane, including a basic topology, packet formats, and support for various deployment scenarios.

Example topology

The following figure illustrates a basic LVTEP topology for the data plane, with cluster nodes supporting remote peers and client end points (CEPs) and cluster client end points (CCEPs).

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LVTEP topology

Packet formats

The following tables describe the supporting packet formats.

Table 1. VXLAN encapsulation

Outer MAC header

Outer IP header

UDP header

VXLAN header

Original L2 frame

The preceding packet format is used between the remote peers for both unicast and BUM traffic.

Table 2. Unicast/Multicast encapsulation over ICL

Outer MAC header

Outer IP header

UDP header

VXLAN header

Original L2 frame

The preceding packet format is used between the cluster peers for unicast traffic.

The above packet format is used between the cluster peers for BUM traffic when the traffic is received on the CCEP Interface. This applies to both the Layer 2 CCEP interface or the tunnel CCEP interface.

Deployment scenario 1: BGP session and tunnel down, remote peers

For a BGP EVPN deployment, the MAC addresses learned on the VxLAN tunnel are moved to point to the ICL tunnel. Traffic destined to this MAC is sent over the ICL tunnel and forwarded from the MCT peer node.