9-2
Ethernet Card Software Feature and Configuration Guide, R7.2
January 2009
Chapter 9 Configuring IEEE 802.1Q Tunneling and Layer 2 Protocol Tunneling
Understanding IEEE 802.1Q Tunneling
Figure 9-1 IEEE 802.1Q Tunnel Ports in a Service-Provider Network
Packets coming from the customer trunk port into the tunnel port on the ML-Series card are normally
IEEE 802.1Q-tagged with an appropriate VLAN ID. The tagged packets remain intact insid e the
ML-Series card, and when they exit the trunk port into the service provider network, they are
encapsulated with another layer of an IEEE 802.1Q tag (called the metro tag) that contains the VLAN
ID unique to the customer. The original IEEE 802.1Q tag from the customer is preserved in the
encapsulated packet. Therefore, packets entering the service-provider inf rastructure are double-tagged,
with the outer tag containing the customer’s access VLAN ID, and the inner V LAN ID being the VLAN
of the incoming traffic.
When the double-tagged packet enters another trunk port in a servic e provider ML-Series card, the outer
tag is stripped as the packet is processed inside the switch. When t he packet exits another trunk port on
the same core switch, the same metro tag is again added to the packet. Figure 9-2 shows the structure of
the double-tagged packet.
Customer A
VLANs 1 to 100
Customer B
VLANs 1 to 200
Customer B
VLANs 1 to 200
Customer A
VLANs 1 to 100
Tunnel port
VLAN 40
Tunnel port
VLAN 40
Trunk
Asymmetric link
Tunnel port
VLAN 30
ONS 15454
with ML100T-12
POS
0
POS
0
Router_A
SONET STS-N
ONS 15454
with ML100T-12
Router_B
Fast Ethernet 1
Fast Ethernet 0
Fast Ethernet 1
Fast Ethernet 0
83233
Tunnel port
VLAN 30