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The EVPN Type-5 route is a mechanism to carry IPv4 and IPv6 route advertisements in EVPN-only networks. While EVPN Type-2 routes can carry both MAC and IP, there are scenarios where this tight coupling of specific IP with IP prefixes might not be desirable. One such use case is the Data Center Interconnect (DCI), which provides the ability to extern Layer2 connectivity between different data centers. In this scenario, the Type-5 route enables connectivity across data centers by advertising the IP prefixes (compared to Type-2 routes that advertise both IP and MAC, Type-5 advertises only IP) assigned to the VXLANs confined within a single Data Center.
Another scenario is the ability for EVPN fabric to communicate with non-EVPN fabric like a Campus network. An external router that connects the campus with the EVPN fabric peers with the EVPN fabric to exchange the IP campus Prefixes with the EVPN fabric. This allows any campus host to communicate in both directions with the EVPN data center.
Here is definition of Type-5 route (IP prefix Route):
An IP prefix route provides encoding for inter-subnet forwarding. In the control plane, EVPN Type-5 routes are used to advertise IP prefixes for inter-subnet connectivity across data centers. To reach a tenant using connectivity provided by the EVPN Type-5 IP prefix route, data packets are sent as Layer 2 Ethernet frames encapsulated in the VXLAN header over the IP network across the data centers.
This technical note provides details of Type-5 route deployment in VXLAN BGP EVPN data center fabrics using Dell EMC PowerSwitches and SmartFabric OS10 network operating system.
The CLI and GUI examples in this document use the following conventions:
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Underlined Monospace Text CLI examples that wrap the page
Italic Monospace Text Variables in CLI examples
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Bold Text UI Elements and information entered in the GUI
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