Simulation and Analytical Performance Evaluation of a GMPLS-Oriented Internet Architecture (GMPLSINT)
Research project financed by Funded period: April 2004 - March 2006, January 2007 - December 2008 |
GMPLSINT Project Team |
Summary
Generalized Multiprotocol Label Switching (GMPLS) is the newest of a series of frameworks developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to provide traffic engineering (TE) and network control mechanisms in today's Internet. It basically extends the present MPLS standard to optical networks and it is capable to deal with heterogeneous networking technologies. These different technologies may be packet- or circuit-switched and based, e.g., on either copper or fiber. TE plays an important role in the GMPLS framework. While TE issues have already been well studied in connection with conventional MPLS, new TE mechanisms for the GMPLS technology represent a great challenge that is due to the complex structure of GMPLS and the numerous network resources (packet labels, time slots, wavelengths, fibers) that have to be administered in heterogeneous networks. In principle, the application of MPLS-based TE mechanisms to improve load balancing and resource utilization is costly with regard to a heavy administrative effort. These administrative burdens result in scalability problems which have partially been solved by introducing the Label Switched Path (LSP) hierarchy which enables traffic aggregation and reduces signalling costs. GMPLS also uses this concept to construct a virtual and hierarchical network structure based on which it distributes the traffic load and reduces the required TE information. We intend to investigate the GMPLS framework as a means for TE in the Next Generation Internet (NGI). A simulative and analytical study provides insight into different aspects of the GMPLS technology. Research issues are the behavior and the usability of GMPLS in complex real-world network scenarios and its potential for optimization regarding a scalable resource management and a high resource efficiency under resilience requirements.
Key words
- (G)MPLS network technology
- Network resource management
- Network design
- Network configuration
- Resilience
- Scalability
- Traffic engineering
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