PPoE Protocol

PPPoE stands for Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet, a network protocol for
encapsulating Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) frames inside Ethernet frames. It is used
mainly with DSL services where individual users connect to a DSL modem over Ethernet.
Ethernet networks are packet-based and have no capacity for a connection or circuit.
With PPPoE, users virtually dial from one machine to another over an Ethernet
network, establish a point-to-point connection and then data packets are securely
transported through the connection.

PPPoE session establishment :

1. Discovery stage.
.

Initiation - The client software sends a PPPoE Active Discovery Initiation (PADI) (0x09)packet to the server
Offer - The server responds with a PPPoE Active Discovery Offer (PADO)(0x07) packet.Destination addr
Request - Upon receipt of the PADO packet, the client responds by sending a PPPoE Active Discovery R
Confirmation - Upon receipt of the PADR packet, the server responds by generating a unique ID for the P
* When a PPPoE session is initiated, the destination IP address is only used when the session is active. Th

PPP can be fragmented into three parts:

1.Encapsulation
2.Link Control Protocol (LCP)
3.Network Control Protocol (NCP)

Encapsulation:
Encapsulation is provided by PPP so that different protocols at the network
layer can be supported simultaneous.

Protocol
8 - 16 bits

Information
field

Padding
field

Protocol field
This field is one or two bytes and it identifies the data being sent in the
information field. All protocol values are odd numbers. The least significant bit of
the lower byte is always set to "1" and that of the most significant bit is always set
to "0". Frames that violate these rules are treated as unrecognized protocols.
Some examples of protocol field values are:
0xC021 for Link control protocol
0xC023 for Password Authentication Prot
ocol
0x8021 for Internet Protocol Control Protocol
Information field
This field is zero or more bytes long. It has a maximum length (including
padding and excluding the protocol field) of 1500 bytes. This limit is termed as the
Maximum Receive Unit (MRU) at the receiving end and Maximum Transmit Unit
(MTU) at the transmitting end. The default field length is also 1500 bytes.

recognize the padding bytes from the true data.

LCP:
PPP uses Link Control Protocol (LCP) to establish a session between a user's computer and an ISP. LC

PPP supports three types of user authentication protocols that provide varying levels of security. Passwo

Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) is similar to PAP with several unique characterist

Configuring a PPPoE Client

SUMMARY STEPS
1. enable
2. configure terminal
3. interface type number
4. no ip address
5. pppoe enable group global
6. pppoe-client dial-pool-number number
7. no shutdown
8. exit
9. interface dialer number
10. dialer pool number
11. encapsulation type
12. ipv6 enable
13. Do one of the following:
ip address negotiated
ipv6 address autoconfig
ipv6 dhcp client pd prefix-name

SUMMARY STEPS
1. enable
2. configure terminal
3. username username password password
4. bba-group pppoe bba-group-name
5. virtual-template template-number
6. exit
7. interface loopback interface-number
8. Do one of the following:
ip address ip-address mask
ipv6 address ipv6-address /prefix
9. exit
10. interface type number
11. Do one of the following:
no ip address
no ipv6 address
12. pppoe enable group bba-group-name
13. exit
14. interface virtual-template number
15. Do one of the following:
ip unnumbered loopback number
ipv6 unnumbered loopback number
16. description description