Ethernet VPN (EVPN) is a next generation solution that provides Ethernet multipoint services over MPLS networks. EVPN operates in contrast to the existing Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) by enabling control-plane based MAC learning in the core. In EVPN, PEs participating in the EVPN instances learn customer MAC routes in control-plane using MP-BGP protocol. Control-plane MAC learning brings a number of benefits that allow EVPN to address the VPLS shortcomings, including support for multi-homing with per-flow load balancing.

To implement EVPN features, you need to understand the following concepts:

• Ethernet Segment (ES): An Ethernet segment is a set of Ethernet links that connects a multihomed device. If a multi-homed device or network is connected to two or more PEs through a set of Ethernet links, then that set of links is referred to as an Ethernet segment. The Ethernet segment route is also referred to as Route Type 4. This route is used for designated forwarder (DF) election for BUM traffic.

• Ethernet Segment Identifier (ESI): Ethernet segments are assigned a unique non-zero identifier, which is called an Ethernet Segment Identifier (ESI). ESI represents each Ethernet segment uniquely across the network.

• EVI: The EVPN instance (EVI) is represented by the virtual network identifier (VNI). An EVI represents a VPN on a PE router. It serves the same role of an IP VPN Routing and Forwarding (VRF), and EVIs are assigned import/export Route Targets (RTs). Depending on the service multiplexing behaviors at the User to Network Interface (UNI), all traffic on a port (all-to-one bundling), or traffic on a VLAN (one-to-one mapping), or traffic on a list/range of VLANs (selective bundling) can be mapped to a Bridge Domain (BD). This BD is then associated to an EVI for forwarding towards the MPLS core.

• EAD/ES: Ethernet Auto Discovery Route per ES is also referred to as Route Type 1. This route is used to converge the traffic faster during access failure scenarios. This route has Ethernet Tag of 0xFFFFFFFF.

• EAD/EVI: Ethernet Auto Discovery Route per EVI is also referred to as Route Type 1. This route is used for aliasing and load balancing when the traffic only hashes to one of the switches. This route cannot have Ethernet tag value of 0xFFFFFF to differentiate it from the EAD/ES route.

• Aliasing: It is used for load balancing the traffic to all the connected switches for a given Ethernet segment using the Route Type 1 EAD/EVI route. This is done irrespective of the switch where the hosts are actually learned.

• Mass Withdrawal: It is used for fast convergence during the access failure scenarios using the Route Type 1 EAD/ES route.

• DF Election: It is used to prevent forwarding of the loops. Only a single router is allowed to decapsulate and forward the traffic for a given Ethernet Segment.

At startup, PEs exchange EVPN routes in order to advertise the following:

• VPN membership: The PE discovers all remote PE members of a given EVI. In the case of a multicast ingress replication model, this information is used to build the PEs flood list associated with an EVI. BUM labels and unicast labels are exchanged when MAC addresses are learned.

• Ethernet segment reachability: In multihoming scenarios, the PE auto-discovers remote PE and their corresponding redundancy mode (all-active or single-active). In case of segment failures, PEs withdraw the routes used at this stage in order to trigger fast convergence by signaling a MAC mass withdrawal on remote PEs.

• Redundancy Group membership: PEs connected to the same Ethernet segment (multihoming) automatically discover each other and elect a Designated Forwarder (DF) that is responsible for forwarding Broadcast, Unknown unicast and Multicast (BUM) traffic for a given EVI.

EVPN can operate in single-homing or dual-homing mode. Consider single-homing scenario, when EVPN is enabled on PE, Route Type 3 is advertised where each PE discovers all other member PEs for a given EVPN instance. When an unknown unicast (or BUM) MAC is received on the PE, it is advertised as EVPN Route Type 2 to other PEs. MAC routes are advertised to the other PEs using EVPN Route Type 2. In multihoming scenarios, Route Types 1, 3, and 4 are advertised to discover other PEs and their redundancy modes (single-active or all-active). Use of Route Type 1 is to auto-discover other PE which hosts the same CE. The other use of this route type is to fast route unicast traffic away from a broken link between CE and PE. Route Type 4 is used for electing designated forwarder. For instance, consider the topology when customer traffic arrives at the PE, EVPN MAC advertisement routes distribute reachability information over the core for each customer MAC address learned on local Ethernet segments. Each EVPN MAC route announces the customer MAC address and the Ethernet segment associated with the port where the MAC was learned from and its associated MPLS label. This EVPN MPLS label is used later by remote PEs when sending traffic destined to the advertised MAC address.

The EVPN network layer reachability information (NLRI) provides different route types.

Route Type 5: IP Prefix Route

The IP prefixes are advertised independently of the MAC-advertised routes. With EVPN IRB, host route /32 is advertised using RT-2 and subnet /24 is advertised using RT-5.

Note	With EVPN IRB, host route /32 are advertised using RT-2 and subnet /24 are advertised using RT-5.

The MAC addresses learned on one device needs to be learned or distributed on the other devices in a VLAN. EVPN Software MAC Learning feature enables the distribution of the MAC addresses learned on one device to the other devices connected to a network. The MAC addresses are learnt from the remote devices using BGP.

The above figure illustrates the process of software MAC learning. The following are the steps involved in the process:

1. Traffic comes in on one port in the bridge domain.

2. The source MAC address (AA) is learnt on the PE and is stored as a dynamic MAC entry.

3. The MAC address (AA) is converted into a type-2 BGP route and is sent over BGP to all the remote PEs in the same EVI.

4. The MAC address (AA) is updated on the PE as a remote MAC address.

The EVPN Out of Service feature enables you to control the state of bundle interfaces that are part of an Ethernet segment that have Link Aggregation Control protocol (LACP) configured. This feature enables you to put a node out of service (OOS) without having to manually shutdown all the bundles on their provider edge (PE).

Use the cost-out command to bring down all the bundle interfaces belonging to an Ethernet VPN (EVPN) Ethernet segment on a node. The Ethernet A-D Ethernet Segment (ES-EAD) routes are withdrawn before shutting down the bundles. The PE signals to the connected customer edge (CE) device to bring down the corresponding bundle member. This steers away traffic from this PE node without traffic disruption. The traffic that is bound for the Ethernet segment from the CE is directed to the peer PE in a multi-homing environment.

Note	EVPN cost-out is supported only on manually configured ESIs.

In the following topology, the CE is connected to PE1 and PE2. When you configure the cost-out command on PE1, all the bundle interfaces on the Ethernet segment are brought down. Also, the corresponding bundle member is brought down on the CE. Hence, the traffic for this Ethernet segment is now sent to PE2 from the CE.

To bring up the node into service, use no cost-out command. This brings up all the bundle interfaces belonging to EVPN Ethernet segment on the PE and the corresponding bundle members on the CE.

When the node is in cost-out state, adding a new bundle Ethernet segment brings that bundle down. Similarly, removing the bundle Ethernet segment brings that bundle up.

Use startup-cost-in command to bring up the node into service after the specified time on reload. The node will cost-out when EVPN is initialized and remain cost-out until the set time. If you execute evpn no startup-cost-in command while timer is running, the timer stops and node is cost-in.

The 'cost-out' configuration always takes precedence over the 'startup-cost-in' timer. So, if you reload with both the configurations, cost-out state is controlled by the 'cost-out' configuration and the timer is not relevant. Similarly, if you reload with the startup timer, and configure 'cost-out' while timer is running, the timer is stopped and OOS state is controlled only by the 'cost-out' configuration.

If you do a proc restart while the startup-cost-in timer is running, the node remains in cost-out state and the timer restarts.

The EVPN Routing Policy feature provides the route policy support for address-family L2VPN EVPN. This feature adds EVPN route filtering capabilities to the routing policy language (RPL). The filtering is based on various EVPN attributes.

A routing policy instructs the router to inspect routes, filter them, and potentially modify their attributes as they are accepted from a peer, advertised to a peer, or redistributed from one routing protocol to another.

This feature enables you to configure route-policies using EVPN network layer reachability information (NLRI) attributes of EVPN route type 1 to 5 in the route-policy match criteria, which provides more granular definition of route-policy. For example, you can specify a route-policy to be applied to only certain EVPN route-types or any combination of EVPN NLRI attributes. This feature provides flexibility in configuring and deploying solutions by enabling route-policy to filter on EVPN NLRI attributes.

For information on these concepts, see Implementing Routing Policy.

Currently, this feature is supported only on BGP neighbor "in" and "out" attach points. The route policy can be applied only on inbound or outbound on a BGP neighbor.