Remote Campus Routing Design

Question

A third party provider supplies connectivity my remote satellite campus over metro ethernet. Due to red tape the provider is required to supply a routed point-to-point connection (R2 and R3) to the satellite campus; ideally the provider would bridge my private WAN to the satellite campus (R1 and R4) but this is not an option for the aforementioned reason.

My goal is to incorporate the satellite campus into my AS with little or no assistance from the provider. Currently when I create a new network that must be routed through the provider, I must call and ask the provider to install the new route, which they then distribute between R2 and R3 using EIGRP. This process is often difficult and prone to human error.

I do no trust the provider to be an ABR since I cannot filter the incoming routes. I have considered using an IPIP tunnel between R1 and R4, but I am unsure how the policing performed by the provider will affect the traffic. This would enable me to run OSPF in the tunnel.

My primary limitation is the provider and the added fact that OSPF is the only dynamic protocol I have available on the existing hardware.

Answer 1

A tunnel is your only way out here, unfortunately. Without using a tunnel a packet would enter the service providers network and if that destination isn't already known it will get thrown down the black hole.

I would hope and assume that the provider isn't doing any special policing on tunneled traffic, but you'll have to test that out for yourself. If you're worried about moving DSCP values between the original packet and the tunnel packet that is easy enough to accomplish. So voice traffic can still pass through the SP network with EF.

In all honestly some sort of common peering here would be the best. Even if you peer with RIP, redistribution is easy enough and would accomplish your goals. I'm not sure why you can't apply filtering to incoming routes except perhaps company policy?