VPN Solutions

MPLS-enabled VPN Services

VPN and VLAN technology is becoming increasingly important as more workers require remote network access and as companies outsource their internal network infrastructure to service providers. To satisfy this market, service providers need a scalable VPN solution, and MPLS, with its ability to separate flows into logical streams, makes it an ideal technology to deploy. With an MPLS backbone network, a provider has the flexibility to offer a wide range of high-value VPN services.

MPLS-enabled VPN solutions can be categorized by visualizing a network that includes Customer Edge (CE) and Provider Edge (PE) devices, as below.

The different VPN solutions provide the CE with a different perception of its connection to the PE.

• With Virtual Private Wire Services (VPWS) or Pseudo-Wires End-to-End (PWE3), the CE sees one or more point-to-point connections, similar to a leased line or ATM virtual circuit.
  
  
• With Virtual Private LAN Services (VPLS), the CE connects to a private layer 2 switch.
  
  
• With Layer-3 VPNs (including BGP/MPLS VPNs (RFC 2547 bis), the CE connects to a private layer 3 router.

In all of these solutions, the PE device provides a different, private view of the network to each VPN. In other words, one physical PE device acts as multiple virtual switches or routers with one for each VPN. This arrangement allows separation of customer-specific routes and addressing information between VPNs, which is essential for security.

Underlying all these services is a mesh of MPLS tunnels, which provide the connectivity between the PE routers and keep the individual flows separate.

For more information about Data Connection's MPLS products and expertise contact dcmpls@dataconnection.com.