Data Center Interconnect: Layer 2 Extension Between Remote Data Centers

Cisco recommends retaining Layer 2 domains within each data center. However to meet new application framework requirements or for migration purposes, an enterprise may have to extend Layer 2 beyond the data center. If there is no Layer 3 alternative, Cisco recommends the three approaches listed here. These approaches allow the safeguarding of sturdy extended Layer 2 networks while maintaining multipath redundancy with fast convergence and high performance. All these solutions are executed in hardware, and enterprises can deploy different Classes of Service (CoS) by application.