Layer-3 VPNs based on 2547bis have become a mainstream service offering utilized by Service Providers, and Enterprises worldwide. Initial deployments of this technology were restricted to Autonomous System boundaries, but with the increase in customer demand, many implementations are required to extend beyond a single Autonomous System. This tutorial will review the requirements of Interprovider VPN solutions, and the necessary protocol extensions to support them. It will walk through control-plane operation, and examine how routing information distribution can be bounded, to aid in the scaling of the service.

Jim Guichard, CCIE, is a Technical Leader for MPLS related technologies within the Internet Technologies Division (ITD) at Cisco Systems. During the last seven years at Cisco, and previously at IBM, Jim has been involved in the design, implementation, and planning of many large-scale WAN and LAN networks. His breadth of industry knowledge, hands-on experience, and understanding of complex internetworking architectures have enabled him to provide valued assistance to many of Cisco's larger Service Provider customers. He is the co-author of "MPLS & VPN Architectures volumes I & II" published by Ciscopress, as well as several IETF drafts for layer-2 & layer-3 VPNs.