Cisco Cookbook

Chapter 12. Tunnels and VPNs

12.0. Introduction

A tunnel is essentially just a method for encapsulating one protocol in another. There are many reasons for doing this. In Chapter 15 we will discuss DLSw, which is commonly used to transmit SNA traffic through an IP network. The SNA protocol is not routable, so the tunnel allows you to send this traffic through a scalable routed network.

You can also use tunnels to transmit protocols that are routable, but not fully supported by the network. For example, some organizations find that they need to be able to send IPX through their networks to support legacy applications. But few network engineers are willing to invest the extra time or money required to build native IPX support into their routing core. So this is an ideal situation for using tunnels.

And we often see tunnels for carrying IP traffic through an IP network. The classic example of this is a Virtual Private Network (VPN) that connects two private networks through a public network such as the Internet. But there are other places where it can be useful to tunnel IP in IP.

One of the most common reasons for tunneling IP in IP is to get around architectural problems with dynamic routing protocols. For example, in Chapter 8 we discussed OSPF virtual links. These are effectively just tunnels that let you put routers in different OSPF areas than their physical connections allow.

Another example appears when you need to extend a routing protocol through regions of the network that don’t ...