PBB technology can be deployed in a number of environments. Natively, PBB is an Ethernet data plane technology that offers service scalability and multicast efficiency.
Environment:
MPLS (mesh and spoke-SDPs)
Ethernet SAPs
Within these environments, SR OS offers a number of optional control planes:
Shortest Path Bridging MAC (SPBM) (SAPs and spoke-SDPs); see Shortest Path Bridging MAC Mode (SPBM)
Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) optionally with MMRP (SAPs and spoke-SDPs); see MMRP Support Over B-VPLS SAPs and SDPs.
Multiple MAC registration Protocol (MMRP) alone (SAPs, spoke and mesh SDPs); see IEEE 802.1ak MMRP for Service Aggregation and Zero Touch Provisioning.
In general a control plane is required on Ethernet SAPs, or SDPs where there could be physical loops. Some network configurations of Mesh and Spoke SDPs can avoid physical loops and no control plane is required.
The choice of control plane is based on the requirement of the networks. SPBM for PBB offers a scalable link state control plane without B-MAC flooding and learning or MMRP. RSTP and MSTP offer Spanning tree options based on B-MAC flooding and learning. MMRP is used with flooding and learning to improve multicast.