Provider Bridges (PB) as defined by the IEEE standard - Virtual Bridged Local Area Networks Amendment 4: Provider Bridges– IEEE 802.1ad-2005, is required for implementation of provider edge (PE) bridges in a rapid-spanning tree environment for Carrier Ethernet networks.
Using the Q-in-Q model (S-VLAN and C-VLAN tags) it enables a service provider to provide separate LANs, Bridged, or Virtual Bridged LANs to independent customer organizations, by leveraging the existing network infrastructure. It also gives the capability to scale the number of VLANs and increase the bridge network diameter by use of the double tagged Q-in-Q model.
The Net-O2 ATTEST PB test suite verifies Provider Bridge implementations for C-tagged, S-tagged and Port based service implementations.
The test cases verify handling of control PDUs (i.e., LLDP, LACP) and data frames for different C-VLAN, S-VLAN reserved addresses. The enhanced RSTP implementation for the CVLAN component is also verified.
Provider Bridges test cases verify the forwarding of tagged and untagged data frames against C-VLAN and S-VLAN based on both filtering database and service associations.
Together with other test suites such as CFM, EFM-OAM, VLAN, RSTP, MSTP and LACP, Net-O2 provides a comprehensive solution for conformance testing of Carrier Ethernet switches.
