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