Just What Is MPLS, What Does It Do, And Where Can You Get It?
Your boss has put you in charge of finding a replacement for your frame relay. Your service is slow, expensive, and inflexible. Someone in your IT department mentions MPLS, but those initials are foreign to you. Don’t panic…read on to learn what MPLS is and what it can do for you: * Multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) was invented to solve the problem of bridging multiple disparate protocols such as Frame Relay, ATM and Ethernet. * Over the last few years, MPLS has won the battle within core networks and has become the dominant internetworking technology. * Carriers have deployed IP/MPLS core routers in order to support existing legacy networks more cost effectively. * Fundamentally, MPLS employs an encapsulation technique providing internetworking between different technologies, coupled with signaling protocols necessary to discover, configure and manage connectivity. * In addition to signaling protocols, MPLS uses resiliency protocols, such as Fast Re-route and Bi-directional Fau
