Benefits of Configuring PPPoE Service Name Tables

Configuring PPPoE service name tables provides the following benefits:

• Enables support for multiple services requested by PPPoE clients, and configuration of an action for the underlying PPPoE interface to take (delay, drop, or terminate) upon receipt of a PPPoE Active Discovery Initiation (PADI) packet requesting that service.

• Provides tighter control over which PPPoE clients can log in to and receive services from a particular PPPoE server.

• Provides load balancing across a set of remote access concentrators (ACs) in a mesh topology by enabling you to configure agent circuit identifier/agent remote identifier (ACI/ARI) pairs for named, empty, and any service entries to specify the appropriate AC to receive and service a particular PPPoE client request.

• Offers a more targeted approach to configuration of PPPoE sessions based on the service name and ACI/ARI information provided by the PPPoE client during PPPoE negotiation.

• Supports creation of dynamic PPPoE subscriber interfaces in a specified routing instance based on configuration of a service entry or ACI/ARI pair in the PPPoE service name table.

• Enables you to reserve a specified static PPPoE interface for use only by the PPPoE client with matching ACI/ARI information.

• Enables you to specify the maximum number of PPPoE client sessions that can use a particular service entry in the PPPoE service name table.

• Provides redundancy across a set of remote ACs in a mesh topology by enabling you to configure a primary AC and a backup AC for handling a specific service request from a PPPoE client.

  For example, on the primary AC for handling a client service, you might configure the terminate action for the associated service to direct the primary AC to immediately send a PPPoE Active Discovery Offer (PADO) packet in response to a PADI packet containing that service name tag. On the backup AC for the client service, you might configure the delay action for the associated service to specify the number of seconds the backup AC waits after receiving a PADI packet from the client before sending a PADO packet in response. If the primary AC does not send a PADO packet to the client within the delay period configured on the backup AC, then the backup AC sends the PADO packet after the delay period expires.