VPLS has significant advantages for both service providers and customers. Service providers benefit because they can generate additional revenues by offering a new Ethernet service with flexible bandwidth and sophisticated service level agreements (SLAs). VPLS is also simpler and more cost effective to operate than a traditional service. Customers benefit because they can connect all of their sites to an Ethernet VPN that provides a secure, high speed and homogenous network. Moreover, VPLS provides a logical next step in the continuing evolution of Ethernet from a 10 Mbit/s shared LAN protocol to a multi-Gbps global service.