The authors propose a Global Open Ethernet (GOE) architecture as a cost-effective scalable solution for next generation of VPNs over optical network infrastructure. Three main approaches have been proposed for a cost-effective VPN solution on metro area network (MAN): Resilient Packet Ring (RPR), Ethernet over MPLS (EoMPLS), Extended Ethernet via Stacked VLAN tagging (EESVLAN). None of these schemes can satisfy the following requirements at the same time: network topology flexibility, affordable network functionalities, low equipment cost, and low operational cost. We propose the GOE architecture as an affordable VPN solution that addresses all these requirements. GOE combines the functionality of MPLS VPN with low cost and easy operation of Ethernet-based solutions in a cost-effective scalable manner. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of EoMPLS, EESVLAN and GOE VPN solutions in terms of the cost and network utilization. We show that the cost of GOE solution is two-three times smaller than the cost of the other approaches. We also demonstrate that the network utilization provided by GOE is 22% higher than that of both EoMPLS and EESVLAN. Therefore, GOE can be shown to be a cost-effective simple VPN solution with clear advantages in functionality, management and performance.

In this paper, authors present new schemes of our proposed Global Open Ethernet (GOE) technology from a viewpoint of improving reliability in metro-area Ethernet environment and show the numerical evidence on their performance results. Although several standardized or vendor proprietary technologies are proposed to improve Ethernet reliability, they still have reliability problems in terms of long failure recovery time (due to forwarding database (FDB) flush and recovery from a root bridge failure on spanning tree protocol), broadcast storm, and packet loss in network reconfiguration. To solve these problems, we introduce three schemes, a Per Destination - Multiple Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (PD-MRSTP), a GOE Virtual Switch Redundancy Protocol (GVSRP), and an In-Service Reconfiguration (ISR) schemes. PD-MRSTP scheme reduces the failure recovery time by eliminating the need to flush the FDB and to recover from root bridge failures. GVSRP scheme ensures the reliability of connections between a GOE domain and a legacy Ethernet domain. Combined with PD-MRSTP, GVSRP prevents broadcast storm problems due to loops in the inter-domain area. ISR scheme enables in-service bridge replacement and upgrade without packet loss. Evaluating our prototype system, we obtained the following remarkable performance results. The GOE network using PD-MRSTP scheme delivered a fast failure recovery performance (4 ms) independent of the number of MAC address entries, whereas the legacy Ethernet network took 522 ms when a bridge had 6000 MAC address entries. Since we found that the failure recovery time increased in proportion to the number of MAC address entries, the one in large carrier network having one million of MAC address entries would take several tens of seconds. Thus using PD-MRSTP can reduce failure recovery time one ten-thousandth comparing with that of legacy Ethernet. In addition, evaluation of the ISR scheme demonstrated that a network can be upgraded with zero packet loss. Therefore, a GOE-based VPN is a promising alternative to other Ethernet VPNs for its reliability and stability.