Comparative Analysis of Site-to-Site Layer 2 Virtual Private Networks

Abstract

Nowadays, many companies have branch offices and connect those offices to the main office over the Internet using a site-to-site Virtual Private Network connection. Most of these connections have always operated at Layer 3 of the OSI network model. In recent years, there has been a growing requirement to extend links at Layer 2, which allows broadcast traffic to be forwarded between sites. Depending on inter-site connection medium, different technologies are utilized. This paper compares and analyses site-to-site Layer 2 VPN technologies, which include layer 2 tunneling protocol (L2TP), and point to point tunneling protocol (PPTP), OpenVPN, Ethernet over IP (EoIP), and MPLS/VPLS to choose the right VPN for the organization. This is done by means of performance measurement and packet analysis. In order to provide fair comparable results, all technologies are tested in the same manner.