GARP VLAN Registration Protocol (GVRP)
Automatic configuration of VLANs
The GARP VLAN Registration Protocol (GVRP) is a protocol that simplifies VLAN assignment on network-role ports and ensures consistency among switches in a network.
GVRP is supported only in the IEEE 802.1Q/IEEE 802.1ad VLAN tagging modes. In the transparent tagging modes (VPN tagging modes), a similar protocol, the proprietary spanning tree with VPN registration protocol (STVRP) is supported. STVRP is enabled per default and cannot be disabled.
By using GVRP, VLAN identifiers (VLAN IDs) only need to be provisioned on customer-role ports of access nodes. VLAN IDs on network-role ports of intermediate and access nodes are automatically configured by means of GVRP. The provisioned VLAN IDs on customer-role ports are called static VLAN entries; the VLANs assigned by GVRP are called dynamic VLAN entries. In addition, GVRP prevents unnecessary broadcasting of Ethernet frames by forwarding VLAN frames only to those parts of the network that have customer-role ports with that VLAN ID. Thus, the traffic of a VLAN is limited to the STP branches that are actually connecting the VLAN members.
Legend:
|
1 |
Static VLAN IDs need to be entered manually at customer-role ports. |
|
2 |
Dynamic VLAN IDs of intermediate and access nodes are automatically configured. |
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3 |
No automatic configuration of VLAN IDs on ports towards those access nodes where the respective VLAN ID is not provisioned, i.e. no unnecessary broadcasting of Ethernet frames by forwarding VLAN frames only to those parts of the network that have customer-role ports with that VLAN ID. |
Note that GVRP and the spanning tree protocol (STP) interact with each other. After a stable spanning tree is determined (at initialization or after a reconfiguration due to a failure) the GVRP protocol recomputes the best VLAN assignments on all network-role ports, given the new spanning tree topology.
GVRP can be enabled (default setting) or disabled per virtual switch. However, all virtual switches on an Ethernet network need to be in the same GVRP mode. For interworking flexibility one can optionally disable STP per network-role port; implicitly GVRP is then disabled as well on that port. GVRP must be disabled in order to interwork with nodes that do not support GVRP.
Max. number of VLANs
The maximum supported number of active VLANs (VLAN identifiers) is limited for reasons of controller performance, and varies depending on product, tagging mode and GVRP activation status. The following table shows the applicable values. Note that even if the maximum number of active VLANs is limited to 64, 247, or 1024, VLAN identifiers out of the full range of VLAN identifiers (1…4093) can be used for tagging purposes.
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Max. number of active VLANs | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Product |
Transparent tagging (VPN tagging) mode1 |
IEEE 802.1Q/IEEE 802.1ad tagging mode | |
|
GVRP enabled |
GVRP disabled | ||
|
1643 AM/1643 AMS2 |
64 VLANs per card |
64 VLANs per card |
64 VLANs per NE |
Notes:
No distinction is made with respect to the STVRP activation status, because STVRP is enabled per default and cannot be disabled.
An alarm (MACcVLANOVFW – Maximum number of VLAN instances exceeded) will be reported when the max. number of active VLANs per TransLAN® card is exceeded.
The LambdaUnite® MSS transparent tagging mode rather compares to the provider bridge tagging mode (see IEEE 802.1ad VLAN tagging) than to this transparent tagging (VPN tagging) mode.
A maximum of 5000 VLAN/port associations is supported per network element, except for the 1643 AM/1643 AMS, where the maximum number of VLAN/port associations is 2000. An alarm (MIBcVLANOVFW – Maximum number of VLAN instances exceeded in MIB) will be reported when the max. number of VLAN/port associations per network element is exceeded.
Alcatel-Lucent – Proprietary
Use pursuant to applicable agreements