Subject: RE: Port

From: Prem Shankar Sharma <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 15:29:59 -0700

Vasanthi,

   It's a long standing debate whether MPLS control plane entities
   are layer2 or layer3 in nature. Yakov in one of his mails clearly
   pointed out the difference long back. 

   Unlike layer3 layers, MPLS lacks addressing and routing component. It
   has to rely on IP, OSPF/BGP etc. for that. It's not layer 2 either as
   it operates layer 2 and doesn't have a single format for data
   transmission - requirement for layer2.

   Hope it helps.

Thanks.
Prem

> > > MPLS resides at Layer 2.  Why would there be a port number?
> >
> >     MPLS control plane resides in layer 3 and that is why a 
> port number
> > had to be assigned to handle the control plane traffic.
> >
> > -Vasanthi
>