Question 380
At fictional Maplewood Exchange, during a wholesale access handoff, engineers report: A wholesale carrier accepts ordinary-sized frames but fails jumbo-frame handoff when encapsulation overhead increases the on-wire size. Which ongoing control would most directly detect or prevent the same failure from recurring?
Explanation
Correct Answer
Include tagged maximum-frame-size tests and hardware interface MTU limits in service acceptance. This monitors the behavior that failed at Maplewood Exchange; the most useful acceptance signal is that tagged test frames of the required service size traverse each handoff without oversize or discard counters rising.
Incorrect Answers
Compare OSPF area IDs at both ends of every new inter-router link before production cutover. That ongoing check is for OSPF area identity mismatch; it would not reliably detect recurrence of provider bridging MTU overhead. Provider tag stacking adds frame overhead; an unchanged link MTU may reject frames that previously fitted untagged.
Validate tag behavior, allowed VLAN membership, and connected device expectations at port provisioning. That ongoing check is for VLAN access trunk distinction; it would not reliably detect recurrence of provider bridging MTU overhead. Provider tag stacking adds frame overhead; an unchanged link MTU may reject frames that previously fitted untagged.
Monitor high-frequency MAC moves and correlate them with spanning-tree and bridge-interface events. The monitored boundary differs from provider bridging MTU overhead, so the original weakness might reappear unnoticed. Provider tag stacking adds frame overhead; an unchanged link MTU may reject frames that previously fitted untagged.