I am looking at applying for some government funding
We will probably need to provide layer 2 wholesale access and split the company into a network and retail division.

Much like our government's fibre-to-the-home build, each customer tail is delivered across a handover with each customer as a seperate VLAN which creates an end-to-end layer 2 connection.

I was thinking I would use a mikrotik mAP which would create a layer 2 VPN from its lan port, back into a concentrator at our core, and then pass it through the handover as a vlan to the retailer (or my new retail division)

PPTP seems to loose alot of speed over multiple hops and distance (~120kms and 6 hops it slows from 10mbit plain routed down to 6mbits via the vpn) when i tested it using my computer vpn'd into the border router.

So then we thought that we could try using MPLS/VPLS tunnels - except because they run at layer 2, and cannot be routed through a layer 3 TCP/IPv4 powercode BMU, they wont work.

How would you guys go about doing this, while still maintaining compatibility with the powercode router.

This sounds like you're riding some other carrier's layer3 to reach various areas.
You could see if they support MPLS NNI. Then you could use MPLS/VPLS in your regions and tunnel them through the provider's MPLS.

If it's your own layer3 backbone then you can use MPLS for sure.

If not your core, and no MPLS NNI is available, then you could use a tiered approach. Use Local access concentrators near the customers, and make single tunnels between these and your core. The concentrator/core link can be Q-in-Q and would only be one connection to encrypt and maintain per area.

I would use L2TP/IPSEC as the tunnelling technology for the core uplinks, and just plain ol' vlans in the local area.

Hi Ray,

You can do this with mpls/vpls provided you own all the links and they can do large enough frames.

You can even overlay this over your existing L2 network no problem.