What is MPLS?
Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a standardized protocol to enable high performance IP networks. It provides fast response time for applications running on your WAN, security without scaling problems and with a lower cost structure. To both simplify and increase the efficiency of the network, the MPLS protocol enables data to be transmitted efficiently across a network infrastructure utilizing a technology known as “label switching.” This is much more effective than running a VPN over the Internet.
Key application: MPLS enables the creation of secure, reliable VPNs which are simple to manage, easy to deploy and which provide Class of Service/Quality of Service (QoS) support. The result is a single integrated IP network which supports quality of service, which is the key advantage in an application rich environment. This means you can implement VoIP and prioritize your applications ahead of the best-effort non-critical data. You have the reliability & security of legacy technologies like Frame Relay with the routing flexibility of IP. For applications such as Siebel, Oracle, Peoplesoft and other client-server applications, the productivity gains using MPLS versus a VPN over the Internet are substantial. If you use a Frame Relay, MPLS will improve your network flexibility, simplify management and reduce your costs.
How MPLS Works ?
As your corporate data enters the carrier network, a label is attached to each packet. This label uniquely identifies your Virtual Private Network (VPN) in a shared infrastructure and keeps it private. Upon reaching its destination, the label is removed, returning the data packet to its original state. The process is seamless and unnoticeable to end-users. One can think of MPLS in this context as a “special delivery courier service” for your network.
The “label” thus replaces traditional Internet packet forwarding, where complicated address matching is performed at each hop in the network. The label describes how the packet should be handled within the network and thus assigns the packet to a Class of Service (CoS). Thus all packets which belong to the same CoS get treated in the same way and quickly are sped along their way.
The result is that your data traffic is delivered quickly and securely and your applications perform faster than with other technologies, such as running a VPN over the Internet.
Business Benefits of MPLS
• MPLS benefits include better performance, lower total cost of ownership, greater flexibility to accommodate new technologies, better security and survivability.
• Better performance: Uses Classes of Service (CoS/QoS) and priority queuing so your network knows which traffic is most important and ensures that it takes priority over other traffic.
• Depending on your current enterprise class network, you can reduce your on-going WAN operating costs by up to 50%, while maintaining a high level of reliability and service.
• “Future-proof” the architecture of your network so it can respond rapidly to changing business needs (e.g. New services, latency sensitive traffic, bandwidth intensive traffic , VoIP, video).
• Lower packet loss means faster response for many applications.
• Network survivability from its fully meshed nature.
• Consolidate your network to a single, enterprise-wide view of your sites/group of companies.
• Have the option to deliver firewalled internet access from the cloud to specified facilities to eliminate internet local loop costs.
• Reduce the time and cost involved in managing a technologically disparate “system of systems”.
• Online reporting allows you to truly see what is happening on your network so you subscribe only to the bandwidth that you really need.
• Simplify the administration and on-going management of your network.
• MPLS benefits include better performance, lower total cost of ownership, greater flexibility to accommodate new technologies, better security and survivability.
• Better performance: Uses Classes of Service (CoS/QoS) and priority queuing so your network knows which traffic is most important and ensures that it takes priority over other traffic.
• Depending on your current enterprise class network, you can reduce your on-going WAN operating costs by up to 50%, while maintaining a high level of reliability and service.
• “Future-proof” the architecture of your network so it can respond rapidly to changing business needs (e.g. New services, latency sensitive traffic, bandwidth intensive traffic , VoIP, video).
• Lower packet loss means faster response for many applications.
• Network survivability from its fully meshed nature.
• Consolidate your network to a single, enterprise-wide view of your sites/group of companies.
• Have the option to deliver firewalled internet access from the cloud to specified facilities to eliminate internet local loop costs.
• Reduce the time and cost involved in managing a technologically disparate “system of systems”.
• Online reporting allows you to truly see what is happening on your network so you subscribe only to the bandwidth that you really need.
• Simplify the administration and on-going management of your network.
Technical Features of MPLS
• Support VoIP, real-time and bandwidth intensive Citrix applications as well as best-effort data. Allows traffic to be “engineered” through the implementation of Quality of Service across the network and class of service on the routers. You manage the traffic priorities.
• For SaaS providers that will support private networking, dramatically improve application performance versus internet access
• Very low packet loss compared to VPN over Internet.
• A comprehensive, end-to-end, carrier grade service level guarantee. All equipment maintenance will also be provided with a service level agreement.
• Expert advice and professional services to improve the use of technology and overall cost of the network.
• Scale to allow sites to be added and bandwidth to be upgraded easily – ideal for companies changing through acquisition or consolidation.
• Let your staff securely connect to your corporate network using a VPN, at the cost of a local call from anywhere in the country.
• Fully meshed to flatten the topology of your network reducing the technical risk associated with a hub-and-spoke frame-relay architecture and improving overall performance.
• Any to Any configuration. When your Private Network is provisioned between all your locations, all locations can potentially connect to each other – improving the overall performance and reliability of the network.
• Support VoIP, real-time and bandwidth intensive Citrix applications as well as best-effort data. Allows traffic to be “engineered” through the implementation of Quality of Service across the network and class of service on the routers. You manage the traffic priorities.
• For SaaS providers that will support private networking, dramatically improve application performance versus internet access
• Very low packet loss compared to VPN over Internet.
• A comprehensive, end-to-end, carrier grade service level guarantee. All equipment maintenance will also be provided with a service level agreement.
• Expert advice and professional services to improve the use of technology and overall cost of the network.
• Scale to allow sites to be added and bandwidth to be upgraded easily – ideal for companies changing through acquisition or consolidation.
• Let your staff securely connect to your corporate network using a VPN, at the cost of a local call from anywhere in the country.
• Fully meshed to flatten the topology of your network reducing the technical risk associated with a hub-and-spoke frame-relay architecture and improving overall performance.
• Any to Any configuration. When your Private Network is provisioned between all your locations, all locations can potentially connect to each other – improving the overall performance and reliability of the network.
MPLS Compared with Frame Relay and Internet VPN
Internet VPN
With the drop in the cost of Internet bandwidth and VPN hardware, many companies utilize hardware based Internet VPNs for their Wide Area Networks. This historically has been cost effective with satisfactory performance. But as application requirements change, the Internet can become an unsatisfactory medium for your WAN. Applications particularly suceptable to the variation in Internet performance are interactive applications such as ERP, Citrix, RDP, VoIP and video. When these applications come into use, companies realize they need a more robust WAN infrastructure. The issue arise from the lack of quality of service on the Internet. Packet loss and latency can vary depending on your route which can change at any time.
• Relies on the global internet, which has absolutely no quality of service guarantees.
• Packet Loss and Latency statistics deteriorate with distance, with greater variability of performance as distance increases.
• When network is congested, latency and packet loss rise.
• Frame Relay has no quality of service (QoS) manageability and is largely being replaced by the more cost effective MPLS VPN Solutions.
• Hardware VPNs are commonly configured as a hub and spoke network.
• While some limited prioritization can be accomplished with hardware devices, tags are usually removed, limiting effectiveness.
• Lowest cost approach to WAN, if performance meets your requirements
Frame Relay
• AT&T is by far the largest Frame Relay provider, with an installed base estimated at $6 billion annually. This number is expected to change between 2008 and 2009 when most of these frame relay contracts expire. With these expirations, companies will explore MPLS and other competitive offerings, which in many cases will reduce costs and improve manageability and performance of their wide area networks.
• Frame Relay, until recently, was a networking technology that was the primary service for Wide Area Networks.
• Relies on the underlying assumption by carriers that not all customers will be using the full bandwidth of their circuits at the same time.
• Frame Relay uses an over subscription model.
• Carriers will sell you a CIR or Committed Information Rate on their Frame Relay Network. This rate is the bandwidth you are GUARANTEED by the carrier. For example if you purchase a 256 Kbps CIR from a carrier, all traffic up to that point will be guaranteed to be delivered.
• You may burst above your purchased CIR but in times of heavy network congestion any packets you send above the CIR will be eligible for discard by the carrier.
• Frame Relay has no quality of service (QoS) manageability and is largely being replaced by the more cost effective MPLS VPN Solutions.
• Frame Relay is commonly configured as a hub and spoke network.
• Frame Relay can run over MPLS to obtain the benefits of traffic prioritization and management.
Why Switch to MPLS?
MPLS is a protocol that uses packet labels to prioritize network packets to optimize network performance.
• If you have Quality of Service (QoS) sensitive applications such as VoIP, video conferencing, SAP, Oracle, Citrix or other real time applications running across your WAN then you should consider MPLS.
• MPLS is a private networking technology similar to the concept of Frame Relay in that it is delivered in the "cloud".
• The primary difference with MPLS is that you can purchase quality of service for applications across your WAN.
• During the provisioning process the carrier will interview you in order to determine which applications are important to your business, they will then build a QoS template to service these applications on your WAN.
• These applications will be given priority over all other traffic in times of peak load. While MPLS may not be the least cost solution, it is the ONLY technology that will support QoS.
• For applications such as Citrix, SAP, Oracle, Siebel, Peoplesoft, VoIP and Video, performance using the QoS capabilities of MPLS can dramatically improve quality and productivity.
• If an application works well on a Frame Relay, it will work better using MPLS. If an application not performing adequately on your Internet VPN, if the problem is packet loss or latency, MPLS will be the solution.
Internet VPN
With the drop in the cost of Internet bandwidth and VPN hardware, many companies utilize hardware based Internet VPNs for their Wide Area Networks. This historically has been cost effective with satisfactory performance. But as application requirements change, the Internet can become an unsatisfactory medium for your WAN. Applications particularly suceptable to the variation in Internet performance are interactive applications such as ERP, Citrix, RDP, VoIP and video. When these applications come into use, companies realize they need a more robust WAN infrastructure. The issue arise from the lack of quality of service on the Internet. Packet loss and latency can vary depending on your route which can change at any time.
• Relies on the global internet, which has absolutely no quality of service guarantees.
• Packet Loss and Latency statistics deteriorate with distance, with greater variability of performance as distance increases.
• When network is congested, latency and packet loss rise.
• Frame Relay has no quality of service (QoS) manageability and is largely being replaced by the more cost effective MPLS VPN Solutions.
• Hardware VPNs are commonly configured as a hub and spoke network.
• While some limited prioritization can be accomplished with hardware devices, tags are usually removed, limiting effectiveness.
• Lowest cost approach to WAN, if performance meets your requirements
Frame Relay
• AT&T is by far the largest Frame Relay provider, with an installed base estimated at $6 billion annually. This number is expected to change between 2008 and 2009 when most of these frame relay contracts expire. With these expirations, companies will explore MPLS and other competitive offerings, which in many cases will reduce costs and improve manageability and performance of their wide area networks.
• Frame Relay, until recently, was a networking technology that was the primary service for Wide Area Networks.
• Relies on the underlying assumption by carriers that not all customers will be using the full bandwidth of their circuits at the same time.
• Frame Relay uses an over subscription model.
• Carriers will sell you a CIR or Committed Information Rate on their Frame Relay Network. This rate is the bandwidth you are GUARANTEED by the carrier. For example if you purchase a 256 Kbps CIR from a carrier, all traffic up to that point will be guaranteed to be delivered.
• You may burst above your purchased CIR but in times of heavy network congestion any packets you send above the CIR will be eligible for discard by the carrier.
• Frame Relay has no quality of service (QoS) manageability and is largely being replaced by the more cost effective MPLS VPN Solutions.
• Frame Relay is commonly configured as a hub and spoke network.
• Frame Relay can run over MPLS to obtain the benefits of traffic prioritization and management.
Why Switch to MPLS?
MPLS is a protocol that uses packet labels to prioritize network packets to optimize network performance.
• If you have Quality of Service (QoS) sensitive applications such as VoIP, video conferencing, SAP, Oracle, Citrix or other real time applications running across your WAN then you should consider MPLS.
• MPLS is a private networking technology similar to the concept of Frame Relay in that it is delivered in the "cloud".
• The primary difference with MPLS is that you can purchase quality of service for applications across your WAN.
• During the provisioning process the carrier will interview you in order to determine which applications are important to your business, they will then build a QoS template to service these applications on your WAN.
• These applications will be given priority over all other traffic in times of peak load. While MPLS may not be the least cost solution, it is the ONLY technology that will support QoS.
• For applications such as Citrix, SAP, Oracle, Siebel, Peoplesoft, VoIP and Video, performance using the QoS capabilities of MPLS can dramatically improve quality and productivity.
• If an application works well on a Frame Relay, it will work better using MPLS. If an application not performing adequately on your Internet VPN, if the problem is packet loss or latency, MPLS will be the solution.
Technical Resources about MPLS
Introduction to VPLS - Animation by Alcatel-Lucent: this is a very easy to understand explanation of VPLS Networks.
Troubleshooting MPLS networks with LSP Ping
Integration with Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS)
MPLS Breaking News
Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS)
Learn the Pros and Cons of MPLS
Cisco MPLS Technology White Papers
MPLS-VPLS Resource Center
MPLS Networking and Migration Considerations
View Illustrations of Underwater Cable Infrastructure in the Pacific and Asia
Network Performance: Sprint
Network Performance: AT&T
Network Performance: Verizon
Network Performance: Qwest
Network Performance: Global Crossing
Network Performance: Savvis
Tips on How to Navigate an Overseas MPLS Contract
Outsourcing Software Development to China
