Mce Overview; Introduction To Bgp/Mpls Vpn - HP 4800G Series Configuration Manual

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MCE Overview

The term "router" in this document refers to a router in a generic sense or a Layer 3 switch running
routing protocols.
MCE Overview
Multi-CE (MCE) enables a switch to function as the CEs of multiple VPN instances in a BGP/MPLS VPN
network, thus reducing the investment on network equipment.

Introduction to BGP/MPLS VPN

BGP/MPLS VPN is a kind of PE-based L3VPN technology for service provider VPN solutions. It uses
BGP to advertise VPN routes and uses MPLS to forward VPN packets on the service provider
backbone.
BGP/MPLS VPN provides flexible networking modes, excellent scalability, and convenient support for
MPLS QoS and MPLS TE. Hence, it is widely used.
The BGP/MPLS VPN model consists of three kinds of devices:
Customer edge device (CE): A CE resides on a customer network and has one or more interfaces
directly connected with service provider networks. It can be a router, a switch, or a host. It neither
can "sense" the existence of any VPN nor needs to support MPLS.
Provider edge router (PE): A PE resides on a service provider network and connects one or more
CEs to the network. On an MPLS network, all VPN processing occurs on the PEs.
Provider (P) router: A P router is a backbone router on a service provider network. It is not directly
connected with any CE. It only needs to be equipped with basic MPLS forwarding capability.
Figure 1-1 illustrates a BGP/MPLS VPN implementation.
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