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Control and Forwarding functions

  • From: David Escobar <c-david.escobar@wcom.com>
  • Date: Sun, 02 Sep 2001 12:32:00 -0500
  • Organization: Worldcom

Hi:
It is said that MPLS makes a good separation between the Control and the Forwarding functions. It is also said that MPLS may use extensions of existing IP protocols to piggyback label distribution (MPLS-BGP, MPLS-RSVP-TUNNELS).
What is the meaning of good separation between the Control and the Forwarding functions? MPLS still uses the same Control protocols, just a little altered to provide label distribution by piggybacking and the Forwarding function still needs to make table look up to find the next hop. Even worse, it needs to make label swapping. Conventional IP also makes table look up but with the advantage of not requiring label swapping. Why can be inferred that conventional IP does not make a good separation of the Control and Forwarding function while MPLS does?