Layer Two Forwarding

What Does Layer Two Forwarding Mean?

Layer Two Forwarding (L2F) is a Cisco tunneling protocol that uses virtual dial-up networks for secure data packet transport. L2F functionality is similar to the Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP), which was developed by the Microsoft-led PPTP Forum.

L2F is part of the Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) standard (RFC 2661).

Techopedia Explains Layer Two Forwarding

L2F creates point-to-point (PPP) network and user connections and allows high-level protocols to create tunnels via the link layer, including High-Level Data Link Control (HDLC) or SLIP frames. These tunnels separate server and termination points to facilitate network access.

In 1999, Microsoft and Cisco merged their respective L2F protocol versions and created L2TP, which is the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) tunneling standard.

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Margaret Rouse

Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

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