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Understanding Multiple VLAN Registration Protocol (MVRP) for Dynamic VLAN Registration

Multiple VLAN Registration Protocol (MVRP) is a Layer 2 messaging protocol that manages the addition, deletion, and renaming of active virtual LANs, thereby reducing network administrators’ time spent on these tasks. Use MVRP on Juniper Networks MX Series routers, EX Series switches and SRX Series Firewalls to dynamically register and unregister active VLANs on trunk interfaces. Using MVRP means that you do not have to manually register VLANs on all connections—that is, you do not need to explicitly bind a VLAN to each trunk interface. With MVRP, you configure a VLAN on one interface and the VLAN configuration is distributed through all active interfaces in the domain.

The primary purpose of MVRP is to manage dynamic VLAN registration in Layer 2 networks. In managing dynamic VLAN registration, MVRP also prunes VLAN information.

MVRP is an Layer 2 application protocol of the Multiple Registration Protocol (MRP) and is defined in the IEEE 802.1ak standard. MRP and MVRP were designed by IEEE to perform the same functions as Generic Attribute Registration Protocol (GARP) and GARP VLAN Registration Protocol (GVRP) while overcoming some GARP and GVRP limitations, in particular, limitations involving bandwidth usage and convergence time in large networks with large numbers of VLANs.

MVRP was created by IEEE as a replacement application for GVRP. MVRP and GVRP cannot be run concurrently to share VLAN information in a Layer 2 network.

This topic describes:

How MVRP Works

When any MVRP-member VLAN is changed, that VLAN sends a protocol data unit (PDU) to all other MVRP-member active VLANs. The PDU informs the other VLANs which devices and interfaces currently belong to the sending VLAN. This way, all MVRP-member VLANs are always updated with the current VLAN state of all other MVRP-member VLANs. Timers dictate when PDUs can be sent and when devices receiving MVRP PDUs can update their MVRP VLAN information.

The VLAN registration information sent by MVRP protocol data units (PDUs) includes the current VLANs membership—that is, which routers are members of which VLANs—and which router interfaces are in which VLAN. MVRP shares all information in the PDU with all routers participating in MVRP in the Layer 2 network.

MVRP stays synchronized using these PDUs. The routers in the network participating in MVRP receive these PDUs during state changes and update their MVRP states accordingly. MVRP timers dictate when PDUs can be sent and when routers receiving MVRP PDUs can update their MVRP information.

In addition to sending PDU updates, MVRP dynamically creates VLANs on member interfaces when a new VLAN is added to any one interface. This way, VLANs created on one member device are propagated to other member devices as part of the MVRP message exchange process.

VLAN information is distributed as part of the MVRP message exchange process and can be used to dynamically create VLANs, which are VLANs created on one switch and propagated to other routers as part of the MVRP message exchange process. Dynamic VLAN creation using MVRP is enabled by default, but can be disabled.

As part of ensuring that VLAN membership information is current, MVRP removes routers and interfaces from the VLAN information when they become unavailable. Pruning VLAN information has these benefits:

  • Limits the network VLAN configuration to active participants only, reducing network overhead.

  • Targets the scope of broadcast, unknown unicast, and multicast (BUM) traffic to interested devices only.

Using MVRP

MVRP is disabled by default on the devices and, when enabled, affects only trunk interfaces. Once you enable MVRP, all VLAN interfaces on the device belong to MVRP (the default normal registration mode) and those interfaces accept PDU messages and send their own PDU messages. To prevent one or more interfaces from participating in MVRP, you can specifically configure an interface to forbidden registration mode instead of the default normal mode.

VLAN updating, dynamic VLAN configuration through MVRP, and VLAN pruning are all active on trunk interfaces when MVRP is enabled.

MVRP Registration Modes

The MVRP registration mode defines whether an interface does or does not participate in MVRP.

The following MVRP registration modes are configurable:

  • forbidden—The interface does not register or declare VLANS (except statically configured VLANs).

  • normal—The interface accepts MVRP messages and participates in MVRP. This is the default registration mode setting.

  • restricted—The interface ignores all MVRP JOIN messages received for VLANs that are not statically configured on the interface.

MRP Timers Control MVRP Updates

MVRP registration and updates are controlled by timers that are part of the MRP protocol. These timers are set on a per-interface basis and define when MVRP PDUs can be sent and when MVRP information can be updated on a switch.

The following timers are used to control the operation of MVRP:

  • Join timer—Controls the interval for the next MVRP PDU transmit opportunity.

  • Leave timer—Controls the period of time that an interface on the switch waits in the Leave state before changing to the unregistered state.

  • LeaveAll timer—Controls the frequency with which the interface generates LeaveAll messages.

Best Practice:

Maintain default timer settings unless there is a compelling reason to change the settings. Modifying timers to inappropriate values might cause an imbalance in the operation of MVRP.

MVRP Uses MRP Messages to Transmit Device and VLAN States

MVRP uses MRP messages to register and declare MVRP states for a switch and to inform the Layer 2 network that a switch is leaving MVRP. These messages are communicated as part of the PDU to communicate the state of a particular switch interface on the Layer 2 network to the other switches in the network.

The following messages are communicated for MVRP:

  • Empty—VLAN information is not being declared and is not registered.

  • In—VLAN information is not being declared but is registered.

  • JoinEmpty—VLAN information is being declared but not registered.

  • JoinIn—VLAN information is being declared and is registered.

  • Leave—VLAN information that was previously registered is being withdrawn.

  • LeaveAll—All registrations will be de-registered. Participants that want to participate in MVRP will need to re-register.

  • New—VLAN information is new and possibly not previously registered.

MVRP Limitations

The following limitations apply when configuring MVRP:

  • MVRP works with Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) and Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP), but not with VLAN Spanning Tree Protocol (VSTP).

  • MVRP is allowed only on single tagged trunk ports.

  • MVRP is not allowed if a physical interface has more than one logical interface.

  • MVRP is only allowed if a logical has one trunk interface (unit 0).