Subject: Re: [PWE3] Re: Bridge or

From: Eric Rosen <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 03 Dec 2002 12:59:44 -0500

> It seems to me, draft-ietf-pwe3-ethernet-encap-01.txt specifies refence
> model and protocol for Ethernet MAC frame transport over GRE/LSP tunnel. 
> It does not emulate anything. 

Well, I think that draft does a couple of things: 

1. It specifies the pseudowire encapsulation for ethernet frames. 

2. It specifies  how one uses a pseudowire  in order to emulate  a LAN which
   has exactly  two MACs on it.  However,  the PW is not  itself an emulated
   LAN, as the emulation includes the  NSP functionality, but the NSP is not
   part of the PW.

Other documents, in the PPVPN WG,  specify how to use pseudowires to emulate
a LAN which has more than two MACs on it. 

In  both cases,  I think  it is  probably correct  to say  that the  PEs are
connected via an  emulated LAN, while the CEs are  connected via an emulated
bridged LAN.  (In the two-party case, I guess the PE has to be regarded as a
vestigial  bridge, since it  does provide  the MAC  service, even  though it
doesn't do any address lookups.) 

But I'm still puzzled as to whether there is an actual issue here that needs
resolution.