Interprovider and Carrier-of-Carriers VPNs

All interprovider and carrier-of-carriers VPNs share the following characteristics:

• Each interprovider or carrier-of-carriers VPN customer must distinguish between internal and external customer routes.
• Internal customer routes must be maintained by the VPN service provider in its PE routers.
• External customer routes are carried only by the customer’s routing platforms, not by the VPN service provider’s routing platforms.

The key difference between interprovider and carrier-of-carriers VPNs is whether the customer sites belong to the same AS or to separate ASs:

• Interprovider VPNs—The customer sites belong to different ASs. You need to configure external BGP (EBGP) to exchange the customer’s external routes.
• Carrier-of-Carriers VPNs—The customer sites belong to the same AS. You need to configure internal BGP (IBGP) to exchange the customer’s external routes.

In general, each service provider in a VPN hierarchy is required to maintain its own internal routes in its P routers, and the internal routes of its customers in its PE routers. By recursively applying this rule, it is possible to create a hierarchy of VPNs.

The following are definitions of the types of PE routers specific to interprovider and carrier-of-carriers VPNs:

• The AS border router is located at the AS border and handles traffic leaving and entering the AS.
• The end PE router is the PE router in the customer VPN; it is connected to the CE router at the end customer’s site.

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