[rbridge] VLAN registration

[James Carlson]

Eastlake III Donald-LDE008 writes:
> As for the VLAN registration frame -- it seems like R2, if it is VLAN x 
> forwarder, should only send a VLAN x registration
> frame if R2 sees, in its LSP database, that some other RBridge in the 
> campus has a VLAN x receiver.

That implies that RBridges need to manipulate MVRP messages in order
to play at this game.  The MVRP request that an RBridge sends out
needs to be the bitwise sum of all of the requests received on all
other LANs by the RBridge cloud plus the list of enabled VLANs known
in the LSP database.

> @@@ Although you can generally tell if you have an IP-derived multicast
> listener, can you generally tell if you have a VLAN-x receiver?

No, because of manual configuration.  VLANs can lurk.

I suspect that SHOULD for MVRP carries a bit too much force here.
It's an optional part of the IEEE world, and, as best I can tell, it's
not really used anywhere (yet?).  SHOULD means that vendors need to
have a very good reason to avoid implementing, and not just that their
target markets use .1d bridging only.

I think optional parts ought to be listed as MAY in the base
specification or -- much better yet -- listed in a separate document
(or documents) where you can be free with the MUSTs as needed.

Things we list in the base document need to be the things that are
required to build an implementation.  Is MVRP really one of those
things?

-- 
James Carlson, Solaris Networking              <james.d.carlson at sun.com>
Sun Microsystems / 35 Network Drive        71.232W   Vox +1 781 442 2084
MS UBUR02-212 / Burlington MA 01803-2757   42.496N   Fax +1 781 442 1677