VPLS Routing Table

The VPLS routing table contains MAC addresses and interface information for both physical and virtual ports. You can configure the following characteristics for the table:

• Table size—You can modify the size of the VPLS MAC address table. The default table size is 512 MAC addresses; the minimum is 16 addresses, and the maximum is 65,536 addresses.

  If the MAC table limit is reached, new MAC addresses can no longer be added to the table. Eventually the oldest MAC addresses are removed from the MAC address table automatically. This frees space in the table, allowing new entries to be added. However, as long as the table is full, new MAC addresses are dropped.

  The interfaces affected include all of the interfaces within the VPLS routing instance, including the local interfaces and the LSI interfaces.

• Timeout interval—You can modify the timeout interval for the VPLS table. The default timeout interval is 300 seconds; the minimum is 10 seconds, and the maximum is 1,000,000 seconds. We recommend you configure longer values for small, stable VPLS networks and shorter values for large, dynamic VPLS networks. If the VPLS table does not receive any updates during the timeout interval, the router waits one additional interval before automatically clearing the MAC address entries from the VPLS table.
• Number of addresses learned from an interface—You can configure a limit on the number of MAC addresses learned by a VPLS routing instance by setting the MAC table size. The default is 512 addresses; the minimum is 16, and the maximum is 65,536 addresses. If the MAC table limit is reached, new MAC addresses can no longer be added to the table. Eventually the oldest MAC addresses are removed from the MAC address table automatically. This frees space in the table, allowing new entries to be added. However, as long as the table is full, new MAC addresses are dropped.

  Because this limit applies to each VPLS routing instance, the MAC addresses of a single interface can consume all the available space in the table, preventing the routing instance from acquiring addresses from other interfaces. You can limit the number of MAC addresses learned from all interfaces configured for a VPLS routing instance, as well as limit the number of MAC addresses learned from a specific interface.

  The MAC limit configured for an individual interface overrides the limit configured for all interfaces for the VPLS routing instance. Also, the table limit can override the limits configured for the interfaces.

  The MAC address limit applies only to interfaces to CE devices.