Subject: Carrying Private Lines over an MPLS network

From: "Badarinath Devalla" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2000 17:46:02 -0600

Howdy !
What is the migration path for carriers using cross-connects to carry
private line services (unidentified private line) when their network evolves
to an MPLS-based network ?

In other words, if a carrier deploys an MPLS backbone (let us say, no CSRs
but routers acting as LSRs), how are the private lines (say DS1 and above
rates) served ?

On a related note, I was looking for drafts on MPLS VPN work and found a
message from Dec 98 (MPLS list archive:
http://cell.onecall.net/mhonarc/mpls/1998-Dec/msg00017.html) on
draft-rosen-vpn-mpls-00.txt - are there any updates to this draft ? (Looking
for tunnelling info over an MPLS network)

Thanks in advance
badari

-----
Badari Devalla
IP & ATM Network Planning
Business & Network Consulting, Richardson
[email-masked]
Tel: (972) 685 5174 (W), (972) 414 6453 (H)

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From: "Antti Kankkunen" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2000 14:01:51 -0500

Carrying Private Lines over an MPLS networkBadari,

private lines are the biggest (from revenue point of view) data service
today and it is clear that they are not going away any time soon. If an
operator wants to build a single infrastructure for all services, this
infrastructure needs to able to support private lines.

We have started some effort around defining the ways to carry voice services
over MPLS infrastructure. As part of this work we are planning to work on
circuit emulation over MPLS. Even though the motivation is carrying voice,
the mechanisms can be used for general private lines as well.
We are in the process of creating an Internet Draft that will define the
architectural reference model for VoMPLS, identify the applications of
VoMPLS, list the specific requirements for each application and list the
requirements this sets on various call control protocols. We are attempting
to reuse existing VoIP call control and minimize any impact on it.

We would like to present this ID in the next IETF meeting and get consensus
on commencing work on VoMPLS standardization. Also a suitable working group
for this activity will need to be identified.

If you are interested in following this work, we invite you to joint the
mailing list “[email-masked]”.

To subscribe: [email-masked]
In body: subscribe (unsubscribe)
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Best regards,

Antti K.

 -----Original Message-----
From: [email-masked] [mailto:[email-masked]]On Behalf Of Badarinath
Devalla
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2000 6:46 PM
To: [email-masked]'
Cc: Badarinath Devalla
Subject: Carrying Private Lines over an MPLS network

  Howdy !

  Thanks in advance
  badari

  -----

  Badari Devalla

---

From: Christian Kuhtz <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2000 14:24:48 -0500

If I may add my $.02,

> infrastructure needs to able to support private lines.

It's also one of the most closely watched areas of telecommunications.  Watched
by the regulatory bodies.

So, while it is most definitely feasible to throw private line on MPLS or any
other transport (raw IP for that matter), another crucial piece besides 
delivering the SLA you *MUST* deliver, the other piece is reporting, 
provisioning & troubleshooting.  Unless you got all those piece rock solid or
you can at the very least pass a straight face test, nobody with, say, FCC
reporting duty, will even dare to touch it.

If you talk to people doing ATM circuit emulation, you might find quite a few
people who will say that private line emulation is everything but easy.  While
it is certainly technically feasible, it still makes a lot of people very 
nervous (and, yes, I'm one of the people chuckling about it -- in no way I'm
advocating soldered copper wire from a to b, I'd love to see all these things
on IP.  It opens a whole new world of integration, which is why we had 
discussions about this internally and with vendors almost 2 yrs ago).

The real question, if I understand what you're going for, though, is..  What's 
the point of doing call control natively over MPLS, though?  How will you
interact with a SoftSwitch?

I think this is almost beyond the scope of the IETF mpls WG, though.

Cheers,
Chris

-- 
Christian Kuhtz                                     Architecture, BellSouth.net
<[email-masked]> -wk, <[email-masked]> -hm                       Atlanta, GA
                                                    "Speaking for myself only."

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From: "Antti Kankkunen" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2000 14:56:25 -0500

> From: Christian Kuhtz [mailto:[email-masked]]

> interact with a SoftSwitch?
This work is still in early stages, but at the moment at least my thinking is
that call control will most of the time be carried over IP, which then may or
may not be carried over MPLS. I would not be surprised if the interaction with
SoftSwitch will have some similarities to the way ATM elements are interacting
with Softswitch in current specifications.

Best regards,

Antti K.