How does NSP manage E-Line services?

E-Line services

An E-Line service connects two customer Ethernet ports over a WAN. NSP supports the creation of E-Line services over IP networks. If an existing E-Line service is modified (for example, to increase bandwidth), the service tunnel is resized to accommodate it, if permitted by policy. If the service tunnel resizing fails, the service tunnel may be rerouted onto links that cannot accommodate the resized service tunnel. If the reroute fails, then a new service tunnel is created. It is possible for E-Line services to use service tunnels that were not created using NSP.

Note: Policies for service-to-tunnel binding dictate the rules associated with the service binding. If no service tunnel meets all the constraints, and this is a new E-Line service, a new service tunnel is created.

Other parameters of the E-Line service are obtained from the specific templates referenced in the abstract API definition. The service definition in the abstract API, the detailed configuration in the service templates, and other network and tunnel parameters form the complete service definition, which is represented in the normalized model for E-Line. Specific configurations based on the devices are then constructed and deployed using the NFM-P.

Note: You can provision SAP-to-SAP E-Line services if you select different ports for each endpoint.

Brownfield E-Line services

The E-Line services created within the NFM-P (brownfield E-Line services) can be managed by NSP. Once discovered by NSP, these services will function the same as E-Line services created within NSP itself, provided that they meet NSP requirements. Any change made to these services within NFM-P after discovery will be propagated to NSP's Service Management views, provided the change impacts the topology of the service.

Note: E-Line services created within the NFM-P have an “Auto-delete” flag. When enabled, services without service sites are automatically deleted.

EVPN-based E-Line services

NSP supports the creation of EVPN-based E-Line services over tunnel types that are supported in a BGP-EVPN MPLS context. The EVPN-based E-Line service is not established over pseudowire. You can configure EVPN-based E-Line services on all the Nokia NEs that support EVPN. The configuration of EVPN-based E-Line services on multi-vendor NEs is not supported.

To configure an EVPN-based E-Line service, you need to start the E-Line service creation within NSP's Service Management views, as usual, and select the Enable EVPN Tunnel Selection check box in the Additional Properties form. After enabling the EVPN service, you are able to select a tunnel type from the following options: LDP, RSVP-TE, SR-ISIS, SR-OSPF, SR-TE, and BGP. There is also the ANY option, which indicates to the NEs that any supported tunnel type in the EVPN context can be selected following the order of preference.

The following considerations apply to the EVPN-based E-Line service configuration in NSP:

NSP supports only the configuration of greenfield EVPN-based E-Line service. The modification of existing EVPN-based E-Line services that were created in the NFM-P is not supported.
NSP assumes that the network is correctly configured to support the selected tunnel type. The service can fail if the network is not correctly configured. For example, if the network does not have SR-TE LSPs configured, then an EVPN-based E-Line service configured with the SR-TE tunnel type is operationally down.
The tunnel type parameter is modifiable, as required. However, NSP does not support switching from the EVPN-based E-Line (the Enable EVPN Tunnel Selection check box is selected) to a pseudowire-based E-Line (the Enable EVPN Tunnel Selection check box is not selected).
Each service is associated with a unique EVPN instance (EVI) number that NSP generates automatically and then sends to the NE to auto-derive the unique RD/RT for the NE. NSP synchronizes the EVIs defined in the network to ensure the EVI uniqueness.
The EVPN-based E-Line service uses an Ethernet Tag (eth-tag) that is pre-configured by NSP and not visible in the GUI. The NE uses the Ethernet Tag to identify its remote BGP peer and establish the MP-BGP connection.

To ensure consistency when configuring multiple similar services, you can create EVPN-based E-Line service templates that you can then apply to your service. Select the appropriate Tunnel Type for EVPN-based E-Line in the template properties, as required.

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