This document describes a tunnel encapsulation for Ethernet over IPv6 with a mandatory 64-bit cookie for connecting Layer 2 (L2) Ethernet attachment circuits identified by IPv6 addresses. The encapsulation is based on the Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol Version 3 (L2TPv3) over IP and does not use the L2TPv3 control plane.
A Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) is used to interconnect systems across a wide-area or metropolitan-area network, making it appear that they are on a private LAN. The systems that are interconnected may themselves be LAN switches. If, however, they are IP hosts or IP routers, certain simplifications to the operation of the VPLS are possible. We call this simplified type of VPLS an "IP-only LAN Service" (IPLS). In an IPLS, as in a VPLS, LAN interfaces are run in promiscuous mode, and frames are forwarded based on their destination Media Access Control (MAC) addresses. However, the maintenance of the MAC forwarding tables is done via signaling, rather than via the MAC address learning procedures specified in the IEEE's "Media Access Control (MAC) Bridges". This document specifies the protocol extensions and procedures for support of the IPLS service.
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