SPB - Shortest Path Bridging an Introduction (RIP STP?)

[Flintstone]

Hi,

As more and more members are discussing SPB in their posts I thought I would put a brief introduction together.

History

A long long time ago in 1995, Cabletron came up with the idea of Securefast Vlans, which uses OSPF at layer 2, providing 'cut-thru' inter-vlan switching and ultimately replacing STP.  One of the architects (John Roese) of Securefast eventually became the CTO of Nortel and introduced this idea to Nortel's R&D and Provider Link State Bridging was born.  This protocol pretty much became SPB (IEEE 802.1aq).

Introduction

SPB is an IEEE standard 802.1aq and is an evolution of the various spanning tree protocols.  Allowing for true shortest path routing using link state protocol IS-IS at layer 2, providing multiple equal cost paths (16), much larger layer 2 topologies (~1000), faster convergence (50-100ms).  A provisioning tool provides logical membership.  I.e.  E-Line - point-to-point bidirectional, E-LAN - point-to-multipoint bidirectional, E-Tree - point-to-multipoint unidirectional. 

When you connect SPB aware switches together they will learn the topology of the Network the same way as a link state routing protocol does in the layer 3 World but at layer 2 using MAC addresses instead of IP addresses.  Each SPB switch will learn the same topology of the Network and will calculate the shortest path to each SPB switch.  When you provision ports that are members of the same Vlan at the edge of the SPB infrastucture.  The SPB switches will then setup via IS-IS the shortest path or paths between the provisioned ports.

MAC address learning is restricted to the SPB edge and encapsulated within the MAC addresses of the source SPB switch and the destination SPB switch.  Note - The SPB core switches are not aware of the edge MAC addresses.  This allows the SPB switches to scale without loops.

Applications initially consist of STP replacement at the Data Center and small to medium Metro Ethernet control planes.  There is no reason why SPB cannot be used on the LAN, but I think it will take time as we will have to learn what SPB is all about and how we can utilise in a LAN environment.  A change in mindset, but it will happen?

NOTE - SPB is fully backward compatible with all the various spanning tree protocols at the SPB edge.

Much more detailed infomation available at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/802.1aq

CheerZ

[Dominik]

Everbody who want to take a deeper look into the very interestin SPB technology, listen to the
excellent Packet Pushers Podcast Show 44 – The Case for Shortest Path Bridging.

http://packetpushers.net/case-shortest-path-bridging-802-1aq-spb/

Have Fun

[Jon Hurtt]

Another good link is the NANOG 50 on SPB vs TRILL

http://www.nanog.org/meetings/nanog50/presentations/Monday/NANOG50.Talk63.NANOG50_TRILL-SPB-Debate-Roisman.pdf
http://www.nanog.org/meetings/nanog50/presentations/Monday/great_debate_TRILL_vs_802.wmv

[Flintstone]

Further....

SPB comprises of SPBM and SPBV and I will hopefully explain the main differences?

SPBM  - Shortest Path Bridging MAC

As discussed above in the original post.

SPBV  - Shortest Path Bridging VID

Based on the Vlan Id which is translated at the edge of the SPBV infrastructure.  The translation I believe will optionally be 'plug and play'?  Edge MAC addresses are also learnt by all SPBV switches.  This means that a SPBV infrastructure does not scale as well as a SPBM infrastructure. I.e. only 2-100 switches

In summary it looks like SPBM is more alligned with service provider carriers and SPBV the local LAN?

CheerZ

[trevans]

Avaya is pushing this out as a new enhancement in COM for version 2.3 which just released on June 24th.

[Jon Hurtt]

Avaya is pushing this out as a new enhancement in COM for version 2.3 which just released on June 24th.

With 2.3 Release COM now features SPBm Managment which includes SPBm Discovery and Provisiong based on IS-IS, and additional SPBm Diagnostics and Wizards/Templates

[trevans]

I'm loading 2.3 in the lab as we speak. Adding the pre-install check to the install application was an excellent decision. Also remember that you have to uninstall any previous release of COM and if you are using VPFM, you will have to do the same with it.

[Michael McNamara]

I'm marking this topic as sticky...

[Flintstone]

Hi,

It looks like that Avaya via their VENA (Virtual Enterprise Network Architecture) will initially only be rolling out SPBM with their VSP 9000 and ERS 8000 switches?

Useful links for VENA:
 
Video - http://www.avaya.com/usa/VideoPlayerPopup.aspx?CurrentPath=/master-usa/en-us/resource/assets/videos/data_vena.flv

Avaya VENA home page - http://www.avaya.com/uk/product/virtual-enterprise-network-architecture

CheerZ

[Dominik]

Avaya had made a successful interoperable SPB test with HUAWEI.
Looks like that the pre standard implemantation of SPB works very good, even with the products of other vendors.

The VSP 7000 will be lunched without the SPB feature, the Hardware is SPB capable,  Avaya has promised to add SPB feature later with an softwareupdate.

 

[lsimonet]

Hi,

Avaya has made a commitment to the VENA Architecture (and therefore SPB) and going forward will continue to bring out new products which will fit the VENA strategy and of course be able to support SPB.

The VSP7000 which has just been launched is in fact one of these new products.  An outstanding 1Gb/10Gb aggregator and top of rack switch from the point of view of feeds and speeds.  Software development on the VSP7000 will see SPB on the platform sooner rather than later (just don'task me to be more precise).

L.


 

[Dominik]

@Isimonet

THX for that info, looking forward to see SPB in more Avaya devices as only the ERS8800.....