VPLS is a layer-2 VPN technology which enables any-to-any connectivity across a corporate WAN. Since it is an Ethernet rather than IP (i.e. L3) service, it allows corporate customers to retain control of their own routing tables rather than having to rely on the carrier to run them.
In terms of its non-US presence (what was the MCI global MPLS network), VPLS will complement Verizon’s existing Ethernet services. In Europe these consist of Ethernet Private Line (EPL), a dedicated point-to-point connection between two corporate sites, and Ethernet Virtual Private Line (EVPL), which is also point-to-point but with aggregation of multiple Ethernet Virtual Circuits (EVCs) at either end.
Verizon offers EPL in 10 European countries, while EVPL is offered for transatlantic links between the US and Europe, such that multiple European EVCs can be aggregated for comms with the States.
However, the any-to-any Ethernet service known as Ethernet LAN or E-LAN (a definition, like EPL and EVPL, by the Metro Ethernet Forum, or MEF) is offered only in the US, and even then only within Verizon’s RBOC footprint states. VPLS will fill that gap in its international portfolio.
Outside of the footprint, VPLS will, of course, require Verizon to provision Ethernet tails from third-party providers, i.e. other carriers, to its MPLS core.
Its execs have complained in the past that, in the European scenario, what one carrier thinks of as an Ethernet access service is different from what another thinks, so it is pushing for Carrier Ethernet standards within the MEF, said Peter Konings, director of product management for VPN and Ethernet services within Verizon Business in Europe.
