Peering Port Configuration How-to

Purpose

This document wants to give some suggestions and hints on how to configure equipment directly connected to MIX L2 switches. We will refer to configuration scenarios described in MIX-302 document. Some configuration examples are available for the most popular vendors grouped by equipment type (Layer 2 Switches, Routers and Layer 3 Switches) and also some guidance on how to configure Link Aggregation on multiple peering ports.

Switch L2 Configuration Examples

The following examples are referred to the ‘Member Switch’ Equipment in the picture above.

Switch Cisco Catalyst 29xx e 35xx

When connecting a Catalyst switch to MIX the following protocols/services must be disabled:

  • VTP (VLAN Trunking Protocol)
  • DTP (Dynamic Trunking Protocol)
  • LLDP (Link Layer Discovery Protocol)
  • UDLD (Unidirectional Link Detection)

Type in the following commands in global config mode (IOS sw)

Cisco Catalyst 6500 Family

CatOS software is still very used on such equipment: the folowing commands apply:

If VTP can not be disabile globally the only known workaround is using l2pt thus disabling it on a per port basis:

Keep attention: this command could not be available on certain CatOS releases.

Extreme Networks L2 Switch

The configuration fragment which follows is related to a L2 Switch directly connected to MIX belonging also to a EAPS ring. In the example, port 1 is connected to MIX, and port 2 and 3 belong to the ring. Teh peering router is connected to the ring on the MIX Vlan. All ports are Gigabit Ethernet.

create vlan “ring”
configure vlan “ring” tag 1700 # VLAN-ID=0x6a4 Global Tag 9
configure vlan “ring” qosprofile “QP8”
configure vlan “ring” add port 2 tagged
configure vlan “ring” add port 3 tagged
create vlan “mix”
configure vlan “mix” tag 1200 # VLAN-ID=0x4b0 Global Tag 3
configure vlan “mix” add port 1 untagged
configure vlan “mix” add port 2 tagged
configure vlan “mix” add port 3 tagged
configure port 1 auto off speed 1000 duplex full
configure port 2 auto off speed 1000 duplex full
configure port 3 auto off speed 1000 duplex full
disable edp port 1
disable igmp snooping
disable igmp snooping with-proxy
create eaps “ring-eaps”
configure eaps “ring-eaps” mode transit
configure eaps “ring-eaps” primary port 2
configure eaps “ring-eaps” secondary port 3
configure eaps “ring-eaps” add control vlan “ring”
configure eaps “ring-eaps” add protect vlan “mix”
enable eaps “ring-eaps”

Brocade L2 Switch

Here follows a configuration fragment for a Brocade BigIron switch used as access device towards MIX LAN. In this example the Peering Router is connected to another porto f thesame switch.

Switch L3 / Peering Router Configuration Hints

Here follows some configuration templates for Layer 3 switches or Routers acting as Peering Border Router, according to the scheme visible in the picture above.

Cisco

The following configuration fragmnts aims at disabling all functionalities which generate un wanted and undesirable traffic over MIX Peering LAN;

Autoconfiguration Protocol

  • DHCP
  • BOOTP
  • TFTP of the configuration through MIX

Other Protocols and Services which traffic must not be sent through MIX LAN

  • CDP
  • DEC MOP
  • IP redirects
  • IP directed broadcasts
  • proxy ARP
  • IPv6 RouterAdvertisements
  • L2keepalive

Global Configuration

Interface Configuration

Extreme Networks

The folIowing example shows the details of a L3 router/switch connected through port 1 on vlan ‘mix’ (untagged).

Force 10

This example shows a configuration fragment for a router/switch L3 Force10 connected to MIX through a 10 Gbit port.

Brocade

Follows a configuration fragment for a Layer 3 Switch Brocade directly connected to MIX.

In some Ironware releases default settings for ICMPv6 ND was at 1 second, this value ha sto be changed to a much reasonable value of 1 hr, with the following command:

Juniper

For Juniper routers be sure that you are announcing only unicast routes overMIX peering LAN by adding the following command to all neighbor, groups and prefix-limits:

Even just one neighbor configured with family inet ‘any’ will activate multi cast routing and MBGP over the peering LAN

IPv4 ARP Cache Timeout

Juniper ARP cache timeout is 20 minutes: to reduce the amount of ARP broadcast traffic we recommend to raise this value up to 4 hrs. Follow the configuration commands to achieve this.

Starting from release JUNOS 9.4 ARP cache timeout is configurable on each single interface:

Link Aggregation on Multiple MIX Ports

Link Aggregation (LAG) is available as a solution on MIX Peering LAN, according to the scheme visible in the picture below. To finalize this configuration is always mandatory to contact MIX Technical Department. Somo guideleines on how to configure it on the member side follow.

The service is available on Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports, up to a maximum of 8.

Cisco Catalyst 6500

The Port Channel on the Cisco side must be configured in mode on, and not as negotiate or desirable. MIX switches does not enable LACT or PaGP as default: LACP is possible asking this feature to the MIX Technical Department. Some Interface modules may have limitations in the amount of traffic injected on the LAG.

Please verify your technical documentation or ask the vendor. MIX static MAC address assignment might be a problem so contact MIX Technical Department. MIX static MAC address assignment might be a problem so contact MIX Technical Department.

Cisco GSR

MIX static MAC address assignment could be a problem with Cisco GSR: keep in touch with MIX Technical Department in this case

Switch L3 Brocade

Old platforms like BigIron Jetcore and IronCore have limitations on the LAG port configuration. Please check your technical documentation. On BiGIron 15000 slot n. 8 is not available for LAG together with his neighbouring slots.


BigIron RX e MLX/XMR does not have any limitation on LAG ports.

Juniper M-Series

There are no nown problem with LAGs configuration starting from JuonOS release 6.0. A configuration example follows:

Optionally a more fine grained load balancing strategy is available:

Just in case this should not be sufficient the hashing algorithm can be modified through some undocumented options introduced starting from JunOS 7.0

Also the minimum number of active links is configurable: when the minimum number of active links is reached the aggregation will be removed, being the LAG not able anymore to carry all the expected traffic.

Tagged ports configuration on MIX

Mix ports can be also configured to be active on multiple VLANS other than the public Peering broadcast domain, followiing the 802.1Q standard. To accomplish this task and gain access to this functionality that allows the implementation of different type of services over the Mix ports the contact and coordination with the MIX NOC is always a requirement, after the subscription of the additional service(s) with the MIX Sales team. Find enclosed in the following some technical guidelines on how to configure this functionality. There are many scenarios where Q-tagging can be employed, here follows some of the most common uses. Additional information and case-by case detail will be provided by the NOC upon configuration of the service. Again, here are presented the most common scenarios:

  1. Tagged peering port over two VLANs, one the main Public Peering VLAN and another VLAN to interconnect privately with another member or a Closed User Group of several members ( each of them must have subscribed the service for the Q-tagging of the ports involved )
  2. Interconnection ports for direct peering configured exclusively on dedicated VLANs3.
  3. Access ports to other services provided by other MIX Members in appropriately segregated environments (private VLANs)

The following are the configuration outlines for the most common Vendors

Cisco Configuration Commands
Juniper Configuration Commands
Mikrotik Configuration Commands
BGP Routing between Tagged ports (VLAN MIX and other MIX managed IXes)

In this Chapter the operational scenario of a Peering Port connected at the MIX Open Hub Med POP in Carini (PA) or at Mxi Bologna PoP and active both on the MIX Milan public Peering LAN and the local Public Peering VLAN is assessed. At the moment for this configuration the subscription of MIX additional service is not requested, so this can be done directly by sending a configuration request directly to the MIX NOC.Remote Local Peering VLANs are not extended to any other MIX PoP, being introduced to define a precise geographical location for the peering interconnection dedicated to the traffic being originated and terminated locally.
For further information regarding the 802.1Q configuration of such a port please refer to the instruction provided in the previous Chapter.

As a general rule, MIX Remote VLANs like MIX-OHM or MIX-BO ones must be used as the primary traffic exchange route between members both connected in OHM. As an example in the following picture a basic scenario is presented: ISP1 has multiple MIX connections, one in Milano and one in Palermo while ISP2 is just connected at MIX OHM premises. In normal condition all the traffic between ISP 1 and ISP must use Yellow WLAN and thus follw the green dashed line. When a fault occurs to ISP1 OHM PoP port, the traffic can be routed over red VLAN (Mix Milano Peering VLAN) over the orange dashed path. Same scenario applies if Mix Bologna is involved instead of MIX Palermo.

In this scenario the requested routing behaviour is obtainable by ISP2 raising the LP (Local Preference) attribute over the MIX OHM VLAN received announcements coming from ISP1, and by ISP1 in the same way around, raising ISP2 announcement LP over the MIX OHM VLAN. Upon a ISP1 port fault in OHM, the traffic between ISP1 and ISP2 will traverse the MIX Milano Peering VLAN going back to normal upon ISP1 OHM port restoration.

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