GÉANT2 featured at MPLS World Congress 2006 in Paris
The network technology known as Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) was at the centre of the MPLS World Congress 2006 held 7-10 February in Paris. Attracting over 600 delegates, this multi-vendor show clearly demonstrated that this technology is hitting the mainstream amid growing demand for services that allow ‘converged’ applications, marrying voice, video and data on a single network.
MPLS has emerged as a solution to meet the bandwidth-management and service requirements for IP-based backbone networks, addressing issues related to scalability and routing by simplifying network architecture. VPNs have been one of the most important MPLS applications.
With the evolution of optical networks, and the need to cater for different traffic requirements with a real-time service capability such as for voice and video with acceptable QoS, MPLS is being extended to Generalised Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) which is set to provide the necessary bridge between IP and photonic layers and to ensure interoperability.
As outlined by various presenters at the event in Paris, GMPLS is expected to become an efficient and flexible management tool for network service providers on all levels of the network. While it is clear GMPLS has the potential to address some of the biggest network challenges, the protocol is however still in its emergent phase. Issues such as end-to-end multi-vendor interoperability, interfacing to existing Operations Administration and Maintenance systems, and demonstrating the operational and economic impact of its deployment, must still be addressed.
In his presentation, DANTE Network Engineer Otto Kreiter outlined the potential use of the GMPLS protocol within GÉANT2 in support of BoD services. He advocated the setting up of a virtual or dedicated testbed to validate GMPLS implementation and to test future improvements of the protocol, noting that BoD research activities and other FP6 projects could equally benefit from it.
Looking further ahead, the adoption of GMPLS as a control plane for the production GÉANT2 network will open the door to the much sough after User- to- Network Interfaces (UNI), crucial for a successful BoD deployment. In future, advanced shared-mesh based restoration techniques using GMPLS, combined with well established legacy protection mechanisms, will allow safer and more bandwidth efficient services.
Recent advances in adopting GMPLS as a control plane for Ethernet networks will provide a valuable addition to the progress of the GÉANT2 network and development in the field of multi-layer and multi-region networks could eventually lead to control plane convergence between IP, Ethernet and SDH optical networks.
More testing will be essential, however, following a maturing and consolidation period, GMPLS is set to establish itself as a new generation protocol suite that can help service providers reduce operational expenditures and both increase their service offerings and the speed with which they deliver those services.
