6. Outlook and developments

Our hosting provider is continuing to grow and now has the ambition to expand internationally. If he could extend his local network to another continent, that would be ideal for him.

Technical solutions do exist. They are based on VPLS (Virtual Private LAN Service). The principle is to use an IP network to transport Ethernet frames within an IP network provided by an operator.

It may seem complicated, but the following points should be taken into account:

• The Ethernet protocol is a Level 2 protocol, i.e. it operates on a point-to-point basis. This means, trivially, that for an Ethernet packet to transit from machine A to machine B, a twisted-pair cable must physically exist between the two, possibly connected by one (or more) switch(es);

• it is not possible...