MPLS , ATOM AND VPLS
I would love to share article by Mbong Ekwoge explaining different Flavors of MPLS ,that can help you to clear any confusion about MPLS ,ATOM and VPLS….
MPLS is the enabler of all these fancy services and applications we hear about today, such as MPLS VPNs, AToM (Any Transport over MPLS), MPLS TE (Traffic Engineering), etc.
In order to clearly understand what VPLS is, you need to understand what led to the “birth” of VPLS (Virtual Private LAN Service). It all began with MPLS VPNs. The client had to form a peer-to-peer relationship with the Provider’s PE routers. What this means is that the provider is intricately involved with routing and forwarding the customer’s traffic and some customers did not like this idea. Also, providers had invested heavily into Layer 2 VPN techniques such as ATM, Frame Relay, etc and completely eliminating these overlay VPN techniques didn’t feel right with their financial people. Some engineers did not like the idea of having to let go of their beloved ATMs, Frame Relay PVCs for some new chap coming in.
This led Cisco and IETF to develop a solution which would let you run MPLS in the core but users Continue reading