Spbm Ieee 802.1Aq Standards Compliance; Spbm 802.1Aq Standard - Avaya 8800 Planning And Engineering, Network Design

SPBM IEEE 802.1aq standards compliance

Release 7.1 introduced a pre-standard implementation of the IEEE 802.1aq standard for Shortest
Path Bridging MAC (SPBM) because the standard was not yet ratified. The standard is now ratified
and Release 7.1.3 supports it.
Avaya continues to support the pre-standard (or draft) SPBM for previous releases, but all future
releases will support standard SPBM only. Release 7.1.3 is a bridge release that supports both draft
and standard SPBM. For migration purposes, it is very important to understand the following
upgrade considerations:
• Releases prior to 7.1.3 support draft SPBM only.
• Release 7.1.3 supports both draft and standard SPBM.
• Future releases (after 7.1.3) will support standard SPBM only.
Important:
To upgrade to standard SPBM and to use future releases, you must first upgrade to 7.1.3. as an
intermediate upgrade step. You can use the CLI or the ACLI to migrate to standard SPBM, but
EDM does not support this feature. For more information on migrating and configuring this
feature, see Configuration — Shortest Path Bridging MAC (SPBM) (NN46205–525). For SPBM
deployments, future ERS 8800/8600 releases cannot interoperate with releases prior to 7.1.3.
Related links
SPBM design guidelines

SPBM 802.1aq standard

The Ethernet Routing Switch 8800/8600 supports the IEEE 802.1aq standard of Shortest Path
Bridging MAC (SPBM). SPBM makes network virtualization easy to deploy within the Enterprise
environment by reducing the complexity of the network while at the same time providing greater
scalability. This technology provides all the features and benefits required by Carrier-grade
deployments to the Enterprise market without the complexity of alternative technologies traditionally
used in Carrier deployments (typically MPLS). SPBM integrates into a single control plane all the
functions that MPLS requires multiple layers and protocols to support.
IS-IS
SPBM eliminates the need for multiple overlay protocols in the core of the network by reducing the
core to a single Ethernet-based, link-state protocol (IS-IS). IS-IS provides virtualization services,
both layer 2 and layer 3, using a pure Ethernet technology base. SPBM also uses IS-IS to discover
and advertise the network topology, which enables it to compute the shortest path to all nodes in the
SPBM network.
Spanning Tree is a topology protocol that prevents loops but does not scale very well. Because
SPBM uses IS-IS, which has its own mechanisms to prevent loops, SPBM does not have to use
Spanning Tree to provide a loop free Layer 2 domain.
June 2016
on page 138
Planning and Engineering — Network Design
Comments on this document? infodev@avaya.com
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