EVPN/VxLAN outside the data center#

Nicola Modena

• Why: EVPN/VXLAN is datacenter fabric technology escaping the DC — campus, WAN, and IXP backbones (MINAP's migration, see IXP updates below, is the same trend). This matters to the PM's DC/WAN-interconnect interest: the same control plane now spans both worlds.
• What: A technically dense practitioner walkthrough of using EVPN/VXLAN as an MPLS alternative for multi-tenant campus and WAN — solving multitenancy, any-to-any optimal pathing, and HA without spanning-tree or centralized L2. The speaker's core message: EVPN/VXLAN's real value is seamless L3 integration, not L2 stretching — "when in doubt, route."
• How: IP-only underlay (no leaf/spine or eBGP required; OSPF + loopbacks suffices, MTU 1550 since VXLAN fragmentation is unsupported), BGP L2VPN EVPN AFI/SAFI with FRR-based route reflectors placed anywhere; Type-3 for VTEP discovery, Type-2 MAC/IP (with ARP/ND suppression) eliminating flood-and-learn, ESI multihoming, and Type-5 prefixes with L3VNI for symmetric IRB and anycast gateways. Concrete config shown for Arista EOS, IOS XE, and Juniper. Also notable: native Linux kernel VXLAN with FRR as control plane, and Proxmox/NSX integration.
• Where applicable: Broadly applicable and multi-vendor; constraints called out honestly (MTU on WAN links, route-leaking between VRFs is platform-dependent, stretched L2 only for specific cases). The speaker is an independent network architect, not a vendor.