Overview Of Ucp; Ucp Protocol Configuration Overview; Upstream Control Protocol (Ucp) - Allied Telesis SwitchBlade x3100 Series Manual

Overview of UCP

4.8 Upstream Control Protocol (UCP)

4.8.1 Overview of UCP
UCP is a proprietary protocol used by Allied Telesis Network Access product devices so that it can inform
other devices in the network that it is the "upstream node" for a UFO VLAN. A UCP node creates Port Notifi-
cation messages that announces it is the "upstream node." The non-upstream nodes receive these UCP proto-
col messages for the UFO VLAN so that they can dynamically determine their upstream interfaces. This occurs
independently of the topology feature being used.

4.8.2 UCP Protocol Configuration Overview

To understand UCP operation, the user should first consider UCP enabled on a set of connected devices that
does not use a Spanning Tree or EPSR feature; a set of interfaces are configured with a UFO VLAN, and one of
the interfaces is on the upstream device and faces into the larger network.
When the user sets the FORWARDING parameter to PRIMARYUPSTREAM, then for this UFO VLAN on this
interface, this device is the upstream device and this interface is the upstream interface.
Moreover, the user can have a second device that also is an upstream device with an upstream interface. The
user can therefore set this second interface as SECONDARYUPSTREAM, which will act as a backup if there is a
failure of the primary interface device. This will be explained in detail later.
As the other interfaces are associated with the UFO VLAN, they are by default set to UCP, meaning they
dynamically determine their direction during topology changes.
Once all of the interfaces are configured, they can exchange the two UCP messages:
The Upstream Port Notification Message sent by the upstream node
•
The Upstream Port Topology Change Message sent by the devices spanning a failed link (or adjacent to a
•
failed device) when the failure occurs and when it subsequently recovers.
4.8.2.1 Upstream Port Notification Message
The upstream node periodically formats this message for each of the UFO VLANs that qualifies and sends them
over the UCP-enabled interfaces. This message is received by the other devices that make up this UFO VLAN
configuration
Software Reference for SwitchBlade x3100 Series Switches (Layer Two Switching)
Introduction
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