VPN EVPN Loadbalancing
Introduction
One of the biggest benefits of EVPN is its capability to load balance. This document will go over the various load balancing methods.
Overview
- There are four main topologies that can be used with EVPN and two of them include load balancing:
- Single-Homed Device (SHD)
- CE connected to only one PE.
- Single-Homed Network (SHN)
- CE connected to a single Network.
- Multi-Homed Device (MHD)
- CE connected to multiple PEs.
- Multi-Homed Network (MHN)
- Same network connected to multiple PEs.
- MHD and MHN support load balancing.
- There are two method for load balancing:
- Single Active Redundancy Mode - one PE acts as the primary while the other as the backup.
- All-Active Redundancy Mode - both PE are used for load balancing.

source: cisco.com
Single Active
- One PE acts as the primary PE for forwarding frames. The other PE acts as a standby backup.
- The active PE is also the Designated Forwarder (DF).
- Using the MHD topology, CE connects to two PEs via two separate Ethernet bundles. Load balancing is performed per-vlan
All Active
- Using the MHD topology, CE connect to two PEs via a single Ethernet bundle. Both PE forward traffic within the same VLAN.