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Guest Column
GMPLS
– the New Big Deal in Intelligent
Metro Optical Networking
(continued)
The goal of GMPLS is to reduce
provisioning times from today’s months/days down to
minutes/seconds. Certainly, the full potential of this
protocol is realized when considering an end-to-end network,
extending from the access segment to the long haul core. In
this scenario a network element in the access network can
signal and set up a path across the metro to the metro
backbone node, which in turn will request a path from the long
haul element and vice versa. With this autonomous
architecture, service providers not only increase the service
agility of their own networks, they can also solve the
multi-vendor interconnect problems when connecting different
network segments or when connecting to other carrier networks.
For example, a metro local exchange carrier (metro LEC) would
rely on a long distance Inter Exchange Carrier (IXC) partner
for long distance services (Figure 4).
See
a large view of this graphic
Figure
4. End-to-End GMPLS-based Provisioning
Protection and Service
Customization
The
GMPLS control plane can not only create and delete paths in a
network, it can also perform automatic re-routing during
network failure events. When network failure is identified by
the underlying SONET layer, GMPLS can be used to determine and
establish another working route through the network using OSPF-TE.
While it is difficult to compete with the 50msec switch time
performance of SONET, GMPLS does however offer more
flexibility in re-route policies. This can be ideal for
data-centric services that do not require the same stringent
level of protection as voice. Therefore, in contrast to SONET
1+1 protection mechanisms that require 50% of bandwidth to be
dedicated as backup, GMPLS can optimize usage of network
resources while introducing various protection classes that
define new service offerings.
Traffic
parameters for network congestion, protection levels,
bandwidth usage and routing policies can be used to create new
service level agreements (SLAs). Inevitably, the opportunity
for service customization allows services providers to
differentiate their services, increase revenues and compete
more effectively. Table 3 shows an example of how GMPLS can
help create a service portfolio offering different grades of
service with corresponding premiums.
| Service |
Protection |
| Platinum |
Very
high reliability (50 milliseconds)
|
| Gold |
Reroute
upon failure
|
| Silver |
Interruptible
(provisioned on working bandwidth) |
| Bronze |
Interruptible
(provisioned on protection bandwidth) |
Table
3. Example of GMPLS-based differentiated services
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