Subject: prime time MPLS/fiber

From: Telecom Tom <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2000 18:20:15 -0500

On Wed 08 Dec 1999 [email-masked] wrote:
> > As far as I know MPLS is currently mostly used for 
> > Traffic Engineering.

> That might in fact be the case in US, but anywhere else 
> for example Europe or Asia the primary mpls deployments 
> are for the purpose of mpls-vpns and hierarchical routing 
> applications.

Speaking of applications of MPLS: If a municipality was considering an
Integrated Community Network based on MPLS (preferably without the
complications of ATM), are there examples one could refer the decision
makers to? One of the more important questions is, How much does it
cost to take MPLS/fiber to the home? Another way of putting this, Is
MPLS/fiber ready for prime time?

-- 
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Tom Nelson Scott         [email-masked]
The Veda Home Company    Bowling Green, Ohio USA
"In IP We Trust"         "E Pluribus Unix"
------------------------------------------------

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From: Jeremy Lawrence <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2000 15:01:49 +1100

Tom,

>MPLS/fiber ready for prime time?

Most MPLS networks use MPLS/fiber somehow (e.g. MPLS/PPP/fiber
or MPLS/ATM/fiber) between the core LSRs, but I don't think that
is really your question.

A more relevant question is whether it makes sense to take MPLS to
the home. I don't think so. MPLS is a technology for carrying
IP in network cores, giving:
- traffic engineering capability
- VPN capability
- excellent IP and ATM integration

At the edge (between the home and the first SP router), I don't
think MPLS makes sense. MPLS may well make sense in the network
core, for the reasons just discussed, but the access just needs
to be IP-over-anything. IP/x/fiber, where x is an appropriate
data link layer (PPP, fast ethernet, gigabit ethernet, etc.),
could certainly be used.

Hope this helps,

Jeremy Lawrence

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From: "Bill St. Arnaud" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2000 08:27:31 -0500

Tom:

We are doing some active development in this area with Fiber to the Home
with MPLS.  You may want to check out our web site
and see some of the papers presented at our November workshop on this
subject at www.canarie.ca.  As well you might want to check CA*net 3 news
archives at www.canet3.net

Bill

Bill St. Arnaud
Senior Director Network Projects
CANARIE
[email-masked]
+1 613 785-0426

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email-masked] [mailto:[email-masked]]On Behalf Of Telecom
> Tom
> Sent: January 4, 2000 6:20 PM
> To: [email-masked]; [email-masked]
> Subject: prime time MPLS/fiber
>
>

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From: Grenville Armitage <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2000 10:04:32 -0800

Jeremy Lawrence wrote:
	[..]

> data link layer (PPP, fast ethernet, gigabit ethernet, etc.),

In principle MPLS might be useful in the access networks for the
same reasons ATM is sometimes used in access networks - a 'connection'
abstraction allows things like multiple provider selection over
single physical links. Each LSP can be a virtual access link.

cheers,
gja