Active-active multi-homing with multi-chassis pseudowire link aggregation

A router comprising:

• a routing engine configured to form a customer-facing multi-chassis link aggregation group (LAG) to include a plurality of active access links that couple the router and a second router to a multi-homed customer site associated with a virtual private local area network service (VPLS) domain, wherein the routing engine is configured to form a core-facing multi-chassis LAG within the VPLS domain to include a plurality of pseudowires that connect the router and the second router to a common remote router of the VPLS domain, wherein each of the pseudowires comprises a point-to-point tunnel that encapsulates layer two (L2) packets and transports the L2 packets through VPLS domain;
• a routing protocol executing on the routing engine to receive a routing protocol message from the remote router indicating that the remote router is capable of forming a core-facing multi-chassis LAG of the plurality of pseudowires within the VPLS domain, wherein the routing engine forms the core-facing multi-chassis LAG in response to receiving the routing protocol message;
• an interface to receive the L2 packets from the multi-homed customer site on one or more of the active access links;
• a forwarding engine to tunnel the L2 packets from the router to the remote router over one or more of the pseudowires of the core-facing multi-chassis LAG as if the pseudowires were a single link.

A router comprising:

• a control unit having a processor executing a multi-chassis link aggregation protocol to form a core-facing multi-chassis link aggregation group (LAG) within a virtual private local area network service (VPLS) domain to include a plurality of pseudowires that connect the router to a plurality of provider edge (PE) routers of the VPLS domain, wherein each of the pseudowires comprises a point-to-point tunnel that encapsulates layer two (L2) packets and transports the L2 packets through the VPLS domain;
• a routing protocol executing on the processor to receive a routing protocol message from at least one of the plurality of PE routers, wherein the routing protocol message indicates that the plurality of PE routers are coupled to a multi-homed customer site by a plurality of active access links and are members of a customer-facing multi-chassis LAG, wherein the control unit forms the core-facing multi-chassis LAG in response to receiving the routing protocol message;
• a single logical interface associated with the plurality of pseudowires of the core-facing multi-chassis LAG;
• and
• a forwarding engine configured to tunnel the L2 packets over the pseudowires of the core-facing multi-chassis LAG of the VPLS domain using the single logical interface as if the plurality of pseudowires constituted a single link.

A computer-readable device storing program code to cause a control unit of a network router to:

• form a customer-facing multi-chassis link aggregation group (LAG) to include a plurality of active access links that couple a multi-homed customer site to a plurality of routers associated with a virtual private local area network service (VPLS) domain;
• receive a routing protocol message from a remote PE router of the VPLS domain, wherein the routing protocol message indicates that the remote router is capable of forming a core-facing multi-chassis LAG of pseudowires within the VPLS domain;
• form the core-facing multi-chassis LAG within the VPLS domain to include a plurality of pseudowires from the plurality of routers to the remote PE router, wherein each of the pseudowires comprises a point-to-point tunnel that encapsulates layer 2 (L2) packets and transports the L2 packets through the VPLS domain;
• generate forwarding information to include a logical interface for the customer-facing multi-chassis LAG and a logical interface for the core-facing multi-chassis LAG;
• and
• install the forwarding information within a forwarding component of the router to control transport of the L2 packets between the customer site and the remote PE router via the VPLS domain over the plurality of pseudowires as a single link.