EVPN Optimized Inter-Subnet Multicast Forwarding

Abstract

Ethernet VPN (EVPN) provides a service that allows a single Local Area Network (LAN), comprising a single IP subnet, to be divided into multiple segments. Each segment may be located at a different site, and the segments are interconnected by an IP or MPLS backbone. Intra-subnet traffic (either unicast or multicast) always appears to the end users to be bridged, even when it is actually carried over the IP or MPLS backbone. When a single tenant owns multiple such LANs, EVPN also allows IP unicast traffic to be routed between those LANs. This document specifies new procedures that allow inter-subnet IP multicast traffic to be routed among the LANs of a given tenant while still making intra-subnet IP multicast traffic appear to be bridged. These procedures can provide optimal routing of the inter-subnet multicast traffic and do not require any such traffic to egress a given router and then ingress that same router. These procedures also accommodate IP multicast traffic that originates or is destined to be external to the EVPN domain.

Abstract as published in the RFC, via rfc-editor.org.

What “Proposed Standard” means

An entry-level standards-track specification: stable, peer-reviewed and a solid basis for implementation, though it may still evolve before becoming an Internet Standard.