EPL, EVPL and E-LAN: Choosing an Ethernet Service

Carrier Ethernet services all deliver Ethernet connectivity between sites, but they differ in how sites are connected and how capacity is shared. Choosing the right flavour depends on your topology and growth plans.

EPL: Ethernet Private Line

An EPL is a dedicated point-to-point circuit between two sites. The full port bandwidth is reserved for that connection, and the service is transparent to most Ethernet traffic.

Best for: a single critical link — for example, between an Indian GCC and its parent's primary data centre.

EVPL: Ethernet Virtual Private Line

EVPL carries multiple virtual circuits over a single physical port, using VLANs to separate them. One office can connect to several destinations through one port.

Best for: hub sites that need connections to multiple international locations.

E-LAN: Ethernet LAN service

E-LAN creates a multipoint Layer 2 network where all participating sites can communicate as if on the same LAN.

Best for: organisations with several sites that all need to talk to each other — multiple delivery centres and headquarters, for example.

Bandwidth and scalability

All three can scale bandwidth over time. EVPL and E-LAN make adding new destinations easier.

Resilience

For critical services, consider diverse international routes or a secondary service on a different path.

Interoperability

Confirm VLAN handling, MTU sizes and protocol transparency with your provider, especially if you run specialised protocols across the link.

Combining services

Many organisations use EPL for their most critical connection and EVPL or E-LAN for broader connectivity.

The bottom line

Match the Ethernet service to your topology: EPL for a single critical link, EVPL for hub-to-many and E-LAN for multi-site collaboration.

Learn more about Global Ethernet from UbiFi, or talk to our team.