1. Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS)--L2 service that emulates LAN
across an IP and an MPLS-enabled IP network, allowing standard
Ethernet devices communicate with each other as if they were
connected to a common LAN segment.
I do not believe this is a technically reasonable goal. if even switched
Ethernets do not work right for multicast (which, remember, is essential for
IPv6) how do you expect tunneled and routed Ethernet to work right? and don't
tell me you want the routers to snoop for multicast join/leave messages --
that's just too broken.
Now, if you want to define a pseudo-L2 service that uses Ethernet hardware and
framing as a substrate, but has explicit L2 multicast control, that might be
worth considering. But don't make it just for tunneling L2 over IP networks,
design it so it can be a truly general-purpose means of gaining access to
the Internet over an Ethernet - replacing PPPoE and other kludges.
Really, we need a plug-and-play way by which hosts can figure out how to
connect to the Internet and authenticate themselves, one that gives each host
the address and connectivity it's supposed to have independently (within
reason) of where it's plugged in to the network, and one that would be general
enough for every network to use instead of this hodgepodge of DHCP/PPP/etc.