B&E Bits

The B&E bits are used to indicate the start and end of a packet. Ingress packets to the MLPPP process will have an MTU, which may or may not be larger than the maximum received reconstructed unit (MRRU) of the MLPPP network. The B&E bits manage the fragmentation of ingress packets when the packet exceeds the MRRU.

The B-bit indicates the first (or beginning) packet of a given fragment. The E-bit indicates the last (or ending) packet of a fragment. If there is no fragmentation of the ingress packet, both B&E bits are set to true (=1).