Interoperability test moves MPLS-TP forward

Service providers that have been waiting to deploy MPLS-TP may begin to see the light at the end of the implementation tunnel as the result of an interoperability test recently completed by Isocore, a provider of technology validation and certification services. The test, announced yesterday, used network elements from Cisco, Ericsson, Hitachi, Ixia and NEC Corporation.

“There is a good amount of traction for MPLS-TP,” Isocore founder Bijan Jabbari told Connected Planet. “Service providers are excited about it.” Jabbari pointed to a quote provided by Verizon Vice President of Network Architecture Stuart Elby for the announcement, expressing pleasure at the successful completion of the interoperability test and noting that it will “enable interoperability between service provider deployments.”

Next-generation transport

The goal of MPLS-TP is to enable service providers to use MPLS in place of Sonet or ATM as a transport technology. “MPLS is used for a variety of applications, including traffic engineering, pseudowires and VPNs,” noted Jabbari. “This is giving another dimension to it and simplifying it to use it for transport. At the same time, there will be some harmony with MPLS.”

A lack of harmony with MPLS is what caused the telecom industry to largely abandon plans for T-MPLS, a previous attempt at a next-generation transport protocol, in favor of MPLS-TP. But some industry players have been disappointed in the pace of MPLS-TP standards efforts, spearheaded by the Internet Engineering Task Force.

Standards efforts

Jabbari said the MPLS-TP standard will be continually updated but future changes should be minimal. “Draft standards are now available,” he said. “Six months ago there was nothing.”

To date, Jabbari said, there have been only a few single-vendor deployments of MPLS-TP, which is implemented on routers or switches within the service provider network.