C H A P T E R
11-1
Cisco ME 3800X and 3600X Switch Software Configuration Guide
OL-23400-01
11
Configuring Ethernet Virtual Connections (EVCs)
An Ethernet Virtual Connection (EVC) is defined by the Metro-Ethernet Forum (MEF) as an association
between two or more user network interfaces that identifies a point-to-point or multipoint-to-multipoint
path within the service provider network. An EVC is a conceptual service pipe within the service
provider network. A bridge domain is a local broadcast domain that is VLAN-ID-agnostic. An Ethernet
flow point (EFP) service instance is a logical interface that connects a bridge domain to a physical port
or to an EtherChannel group in a switch.
An EVC broadcast domain is determined by a bridge domain and the EFPs that are connected to it. You
can connect multiple EFPs to the same bridge domain on the same physical interface, and each EFP can
have its own matching criteria and rewrite operation. An incoming frame is matched against EFP
matching criteria on the interface, learned on the matching EFP, and forwarded to one or more EFPs in
the bridge domain. If there are no matching EFPs, the frame is dropped.
You can use EFPs to configure VLAN translation. For example, if there are two EFPs egressing the same
interface, each EFP can have a different VLAN rewrite operation, which is more flexible than the
traditional switchport VLAN translation model.
All ME 3800X and ME 3600X switches support EVCs on all licenses.
For detailed information about the commands, see:
•
the command reference for this release
•
the Cisco IOS Carrier Ethernet Command Reference:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/cether/command/reference/ce_book.html
•
Master Command Index for Cisco IOS Release 12.4:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/mcl/allreleasemcl/all_book.html
This chapter includes:
•
Supported EVC Features, page 11-2
•
Understanding EVC Features, page 11-3
•
Configuring EFPs, page 11-8
•
Configuring Other Features on EFPs, page 11-15
•
Monitoring EVC, page 11-29
