The Reasons for Selecting a Single Solution for MPLS Transport Profile (MPLS-TP) Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM)
RFC 6670

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                       N. Sprecher
Request for Comments: 6670                        Nokia Siemens Networks
Category: Informational                                         KY. Hong
ISSN: 2070-1721                                            Cisco Systems
                                                               July 2012

 The Reasons for Selecting a Single Solution for MPLS Transport Profile
      (MPLS-TP) Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM)

Abstract

   The MPLS Transport Profile (MPLS-TP) is a profile of the MPLS
   technology for use in transport network deployments.  The work on
   MPLS-TP has extended the MPLS technology with additional
   architectural elements and functions that can be used in any MPLS
   deployment.  MPLS-TP is a set of functions and features selected from
   the extended MPLS toolset and applied in a consistent way to meet the
   needs and requirements of operators of packet transport networks.

   During the process of development of the profile, additions to the
   MPLS toolset have been made to ensure that the tools available met
   the requirements.  These additions were motivated by MPLS-TP, but
   form part of the wider MPLS toolset such that any of them could be
   used in any MPLS deployment.

   One major set of additions provides enhanced support for Operations,
   Administration, and Maintenance (OAM).  This enables fault management
   and performance monitoring to the level needed in a transport
   network.  Many solutions and protocol extensions have been proposed
   to address the requirements for MPLS-TP OAM, and this document sets
   out the reasons for selecting a single, coherent set of solutions for
   standardization.

Sprecher & Hong               Informational                     [Page 1]
RFC 6670               MPLS-TP OAM Considerations              July 2012

Status of This Memo

   This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
   published for informational purposes.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Not all documents
   approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
   Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6670.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
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   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
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   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Sprecher & Hong               Informational                     [Page 2]
RFC 6670               MPLS-TP OAM Considerations              July 2012

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................4
      1.1. Background .................................................5
      1.2. The Development of a Parallel MPLS-TP OAM Solution .........7
   2. Terminology .....................................................8
      2.1. Acronyms ...................................................8
   3. Motivations for a Single OAM Solution in MPLS-TP ................9
      3.1. MPLS-TP Is an MPLS Technology ..............................9
      3.2. MPLS-TP Is a Convergence Technology ........................9
      3.3. There Is an End-to-End Requirement for OAM ................10
      3.4. The Complexity Sausage ....................................10
      3.5. Interworking Is Expensive and Has Deployment Issues .......11
      3.6. Selection of a Single OAM Solution When There Is a
           Choice ....................................................13
      3.7. Migration Issues ..........................................14
   4. Potential Models for Coexistence ...............................15
      4.1. Protocol Incompatibility ..................................15
      4.2. Inevitable Coexistence ....................................16
      4.3. Models for Coexistence ....................................16
           4.3.1. The Integrated Model ...............................17
           4.3.2. The Island Model ...................................18
   5. The Argument for Two Solutions .................................20