Question 260
At fictional Northshore Digital, during a regional backbone upgrade, engineers report: Two customers use the same inner VLAN ID and their services are mixed because the carrier strips rather than preserves service separation. Which focused engineering action would best correct the fault?
Explanation
Correct Answer
Configure the appropriate provider bridge service tag and preserve customer inner tags across the carrier handoff. This treats the fault shown by Northshore Digital: Q-in-Q carries an additional provider VLAN tag around customer-tagged traffic to isolate services with overlapping customer VLAN numbers. Confirm success when captured service frames show the expected outer provider tag and unchanged customer tag, with distinct customers isolated.
Incorrect Answers
Verify full label stack ordering and bottom-of-stack indication on the encapsulated service path. This addresses MPLS label stack bottom bit, but the reported symptoms arise from provider Q-in-Q tagging. For this case, verify instead that captured service frames show the expected outer provider tag and unchanged customer tag, with distinct customers isolated.
Set access or trunk interface mode to match the attached device and approved VLAN membership. That could help in a case involving VLAN access trunk distinction. This failure instead depends on provider Q-in-Q tagging; Q-in-Q carries an additional provider VLAN tag around customer-tagged traffic to isolate services with overlapping customer VLAN numbers.
The proposal changes virtual-switch instance isolation; that is not the failure isolated by the facts. It could leave provider Q-in-Q tagging unresolved even if its own test passed. Q-in-Q carries an additional provider VLAN tag around customer-tagged traffic to isolate services with overlapping customer VLAN numbers.