Technical Summary
The Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) has been extended to support
Traffic Engineering (TE) in Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) and
Generalized MPLS (GMPLS) networks. The protocol enables signaling
exchanges to establish Label Switched Paths (LSPs) that traverse
nodes and links to provide end-to-end data paths. Each node is
programmed with "cross-connect" information as the signaling messages
are processed. The cross-connection information instructs the node
how to forward data that it receives.
End points of an LSP need to know when it is safe to start sending
data so that it is not misdelivered, and so that safety issues
specific to optical data plane technology are satisfied. Likewise,
all label switching routers along the path of the LSP need to know
when to programme their data planes relative to sending and receiving
control plane messages.
This document clarifies and summarises the RSVP-TE protocol exchanges
with relation to the programming of cross-connects along an LSP for
both unidirectional and bidirectional LSPs. This document does not
define any new procedures or protocol extensions, and defers
completely to the documents that provide normative references. The
clarifications set out in this document may also be used to help
interpret LSP establishment performance figures for MPLS-TE and GMPLS
devices.
Working Group Summary
The document was written in the hope that the CCAMP working group
would adopt it. In the end, the working group reviewed and
contributed to the document, but the chairs agreed that the work was
not central to the working group and that AD Sponsored would be a
more appropriate course.
The document has been reviewed on several occasions by the CCAMP
working group including a formal review instigated by the chairs
when it became clear that the authors would request AD sponsorship.
Document Quality
This Informational document does not define new protocol elements.
It seeks to describe existing implementations and give advice for new
implementations.
Personnel
Daniel King (daniel@olddog.co.uk) is the Document Shepherd for
this document.
Stewart Bryant (stbryant@cisco.com) is the Responsible Area Director.
RFC Editor Note
OLD
-- section 1, paragraph 4: "...with relation to the programming..."
NEW
-- section 1, paragraph 4: "...in relation to the programming..."