Xconnect vs bridge-domains

Hi,

as of last month I've started a job in an ISP that provides transport to other providers and the first task they put me on was configuring services on our routers. We usually do it through the usage of xconnect with MPLS pseudowires when the router we collect traffic from and the one we deliver to are on different sites however, when the two routers are inside the same data center the configuration obviously varies a bit.

What happens is that routers in the same data center have a l2 interlink between them. Said L2 interlink is always a member of a Port-channel even if its just one interface (for future scalability reasons I assume)

So, the way I go about this, is to create the service instance under the two physical interfaces and then under the l2 Port-channel present on both routers. However, rather than using a xconnect to put together the service instance on the physical interface and the one on the Port Channel, company mandates to use bridge-domains. Both for scenarios like this were the collecting and delivery interfaces are on two routers with a l2interlink between them or, in cases were the interface we collect from and the one we deliver to are on the same router.

I've been doing some reading about it and I came across this post:

https://community.cisco.com/t5/xr-os-and-platforms/bridge-domain-vs-xconnect/m-p/2134948/highlight/true#M1417

So what I gather is that xconnect is a "dumb" solution, everything it receives, it passes on the other end and that's it. Bridge domains however do their forwarding based on a destination mac address and are capable of learning them.

I think I see why we use bridge-domain the scenario were the interfaces we collect and deliver traffic from are on the same router since they would be learning external mac addresses. However, I can't come up with a rationale as to why we're using bridge domains to bridge together the physical interface and the l2 Po in the scenarios were the two interfaces are on two interlinked routers.Wouldn't a xconnect in these circumstances work just as well?

I've tried to ask to my supervisor but got no answers besides "That's just how we do it" Anyone could offer some more insight?

Thanks