VPLS can be used to transport Ethernet frames to and from multiple, geographically dispersed sites belonging to a customer Virtual Private Network (VPN). The Provider Edge (PE) devices connecting the customer sites provide functions similar to a Layer 2 switch.
Equivalent Ranks to an Army Master Sergeant A Master Sergeant is a Noncommissioned Officer, with a military paygrade of E-8. The civilian equivalent of this military rank is roughly GS-6 under the federal government's General Schedule payscale.
A lieutenant rank is the second highest in each of these grades (1st/2nd lieutenant, lieutenant colonel, lieutenant general); a major rank is third highest (major, major general), and there is an additional general-officer rank (brigadier general). So it might be useful to think of U.S. Army ranks thus: 1a.