Ethernet-over-MPLS (L2 circuit)

Ethernet-over-MPLS enables you to send Layer 2 Ethernet frames transparently over an MPLS cloud. Ethernet-over-MPLS uses a tunneling mechanism for Ethernet traffic through an MPLS-enabled Layer 3 core. It encapsulates Ethernet protocol data units (PDUs) inside MPLS packets and forwards the packets, using label stacking, across the MPLS network. This technology has applications in service provider, enterprise, and data center environments. For disaster recovery purposes, data centers are hosted in multiple sites that are geographically distant and interconnected using a WAN network. These data centers require Layer 2 connectivity between them for the following reasons: 

• To replicate the storage over Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP). FCIP works only on the same broadcast domain. 
• To run a dynamic routing protocol between the sites.
• To support high availability clusters that interconnect the nodes hosted in the various data centers.