Understanding Virtual Routing Instances on EX Series Switches
Virtual routing instances allow administrators to divide a Juniper Networks EX Series Ethernet Switch into multiple independent virtual routers, each with its own routing table. Splitting a device into many virtual routing instances isolates traffic traveling across the network without requiring multiple devices to segment the network.
You can use virtual routing instances to isolate customer traffic on your network and to bind customer-specific instances to customer-owned interfaces.
EX Series switches support up to 256 virtual routing instances. Virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) is often used in conjunction with Layer 3 subinterfaces, allowing traffic on a single physical interface to be differentiated and associated with multiple virtual routers. Each logical Layer 3 subinterface can belong to only one routing instance.