MPLS is a clever technology

How do you see MPLS technology evolving further?

I have created this technology called pseudowires many years ago, with a
team from Draft Martini. I really had no idea how far in time we would come, and
how popular would it become. Latest development is that people have realized old
networks based on TDM/Sonnet were not a good fetch for IP technology.

Now we are leading in a new technology called MPLS
transport profile, which is basically another addition of MPLS technology, which
we created ten years ago.

Going forward, what I see is that, pseudowireswhich are
the first client to the MPLS-TP technologyare going to take over the
transmission work, which I was never expecting. Ten years from now, we will
probably see a world of transmission based on packets on MPLS, with pseudowires
as the first client and IP as the other client predominantly.

How would you rate security parameters in MPLS TP
compared to the existing MPLS?

Security will be no different than what we have in Sonnet. We separate
Sonnet by channels, while we separate MPLS by labels. We are talking about
putting MPLS as a layer for transport network. One of the clients is IP, and the
other client is pseudowires; they still have separation. The level of security
is pretty much the same, as what we have today.

What are the issues that you identify, which come in
the way of deploying MPLS TP?

MPLS is a clever technology. It is neither layer 2, nor layer 3. It is layer
2.5. We have seen an interesting trend in certain locations with specific
service providers. It is due to certain political organizations in those
countries, where people say that it has to be layer 2, and it can not be layer
3.

For example, in India, interconnect between regions for
voice has to be TDM layer 2. This is legislative. Therefore, there are some
service providers that might not move to MPLS TP right away, because they may be
stuck in something which has been labeled layer 2.

You might have rings still based on Ethernet on SDH, until
some of those rules and regulations are changed to allow technology progress in
an efficient way. These kind of laws block at a particular point of time.

Technology moves on, but the countries are stuck, because
the law has not been changed there. They miss to keep pace with the global
technology.

Prasoon Srivastava/CIOL

maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in