Technical Summary
A requirement has been identified by the operator community for the
transparent carriage of the MPLS(-TP) network of one party over the
MPLS(-TP) network of another party. This document describes a
method of satisfying this need using the existing PWE3 Ethernet
pseudowire standard RFC4448.
Working Group Summary
The draft originated as a response to the work that was then going
on in the ITU to apply MPLS to transport networks. It reflected a
desire to illustrate how IETF defined pseudowires could be applied
to the problem of packet transport. Since that time, the development
of MPLS-TP has proceeded in the IETF in close cooperation with the
ITU-T. This draft addresses a sub-set of the MPLS-TP requirements
using a limited set of existing MPLS and Pseudowire functionality,
as defined in the IETF, but is not intended as a comprehensive
standard for MPLS-TP per-se. The draft was widely reviewed by
participants in the IETF MPLS-TP effort, as well as the MPLS and
PWE3 WGs.
Document Quality
There are no concerns about protocol quality. There are understood
to be implementations of this protocol.
Personnel
Who is the Document Shepherd for this document? Who is the
Responsible Area Director? If the document requires IANA
experts(s), insert 'The IANA Expert(s) for the registries
in this document are <TO BE ADDED BY THE AD>.'
RFC Editor Note
Please make the following two changes to
draft-ietf-pwe3-mpls-transport-04.txt before publication.
===
Abstract
OLD
A requirement has been identified by the operator community for the
transparent carriage of the MPLS(-TP) network of one party over the
MPLS(-TP) network of another party. This document describes a method
of satisfying this need using the existing PWE3 Ethernet pseudowire
standard RFC4448.
NEW
Ethernet pseudowires are widely deployed to support packet transport
of Ethernet services. These services in-turn provide transport
for a variety of client networks e.g. IP and MPLS. This document uses
procedures defined in the existing IETF specifications of Ethernet
pseudowires carried over MPLS networks.
Many of the requirements for the services provided by the mechanisms
explained in this document, are also recognized by the MPLS transport
profile (MPLS-TP) design effort formed jointly by the IETF and ITU-T.
The solution described here does not address all of the MPLS-TP
requirements, but it provides a viable form of packet transport
service using tools that are already available.
This document also serves as an indication that existing MPLS
techniques form an appropriate basis for the design of a fully-
featured packet transport solution addressing all of the requirements
of MPLS-TP.
===
Section 1
OLD
The operator community has identified the need for the transparent
carriage of the MPLS(-TP) network of one party over the MPLS(-TP)
network of another party [I-D.ietf-mpls-tp-requirements]. This
document describes one mechanism to satisfy this requirement using
existing IETF standards such as PWE3 Ethernet pseudowire standard
[RFC4448] . The mechanism described here fulfills the MPLS-TP
requirements for transparent carriage (MPLS-TP requirements 30 & 31)
of the Ethernet data plane.
The key purpose of this document is to demonstrate that there is an
existing IETF mechanism with known implementations that satisfies the
requirements posed by the operator community. It is recognised that
it is possible to design a more efficient method of satisfying the
requirements, and the IETF anticipates that improved solutions will
be proposed in the future.
NEW
Ethernet pseudowires are widely deployed to support packet transport
of Ethernet services. These services in-turn provide transport
for a variety of client networks e.g. IP and MPLS. This document uses
procedures defined in the existing IETF specifications of Ethernet
pseudowires carried over MPLS networks.
Many of the requirements for the services provided by the mechanisms
explained in this document, are also recognized by the MPLS transport
profile (MPLS-TP) design effort formed jointly by the IETF and ITU-T
[I-D.ietf-mpls-tp-requirements]. For example, the ability to operate
solely with netowrk management control, the ability to use
Operations, Adminstration and Maintenance (OAM) that does not rely on
IP forwarding, and the ability to provide light-weight proactive
connection verification (CV) functionality.
The solution described in this document does not address all of the
MPLS-TP requirements, but it provides a viable form of packet
transport service using tools that are already available.
The key purpose of this document is to demonstrate that there is an
existing IETF mechanism with known implementations that satisfies the
requirements posed by the operator community. It is recognised that
it is possible to design a more efficient method of satisfying the
requirements, and the IETF anticipates that improved solutions will
be proposed in the future as part of the MPLS-TP effort. Indeed, the
solution described in this document is not intended to detract from
the MPLS-TP effort. Instead, it provides legitimacy for that work by
showing that there is a real demand from networks that are already
deployed, and by indicating that the MPLS-TP solutions work is based
on sound foundations.
===