Technical Summary
Generalized Multiprotocol Label Switching can be used to control a
wide variety of technologies. In some of these technologies, network
elements and links may impose additional routing constraints such as
asymmetric switch connectivity, non-local label assignment, and
label range limitations on links.
This document provides efficient, protocol-agnostic encodings for
general information elements representing connectivity and label
constraints as well as label availability. It is intended that
protocol-specific documents will reference this memo to describe how
information is carried for specific uses.
Working Group Summary
This topic has been discussed in the WG for a very long time, perhaps
6 years. Support for the work has been tepid, but there are multiple
sets of contributors who would like to see the work result in proposed
standards.
This document was updated after detailed reviews by the document
shepherd and responsible AD.
Document Quality
This document provides background and an approach to extending
exiting RFCs for which there are implementations, but does not
itself define any protocol mechanisms. The existing RFCs include
RFC3471, RFC3473, RFC4202, RFC4203. This work is based on
RFC6163.
A number of subsequent documents related to signalling and routing
for Wavelength Switched Optical Networks (WSON) have dependencies
on the generic mechanisms defined in this document.
Personnel
Lou Berger is the document Shepherd.
Adrian Farrel is the Responsible Area Director.