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Re: RSVP and LSP questions

  • From: Tom Richards <tom.richards@parc-technologies.com>
  • Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 12:42:49 -0000
  • Resent-Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 08:54:18 -0500
  • To: "'cariesc@hotmail.com'" <cariesc@hotmail.com>, "'mpls-ops@mplsrc.com'" <mpls-ops@mplsrc.com>

Dear Aires,
I've written below a few comments to some of the questions you raised.  I
think that Eric and John have explained most of these, but just to give you
my understanding...


> 1. Why other type of TE seems not popular (i.e. OSPF TE, etc.)? 

For me, one of the main dirvers for MPLS-TE is deterministic control of
traffic.  Particularly in failure cases.  With MPLS-TE we have the ability
to 
(i) Use FRR to minimise packet loss in a failure situation by rapidly
switching traffic to pre-signalled backup tunnels
(ii) Determine exactly where the traffic flows (even in a failure
situations) by using efficient routing algorithms to determine the paths for
tunnels

This enables both connectivity protection and bandwidth guarantees (for high
QoS traffic).

> 2. What's the behavior of RSVP, when it's configured to constrain &
reserved 
> a 20 MB? Will it maintain 20MB LSP permanently regardless the traffic
usage 
> (no tear down)?

This is the typical case.  However, John and Eric raise a couple of points
to consider
(i) Setup and hold priorities for tunnels - If the setup priority of a
requested tunnel is higher than the hold priority of an existing (signalled)
tunnel, then the existing tunnel can be pre-empted (i.e. torn down).
(ii) Autobandwidth - Cisco offers this configurable facility to allow
tunnels to be resized periodically to reflect the bandwidth that is actually
being used over the tunnel.

> 3. If it's not maintained permanently, who's controlling the actual bw 
> available for the provisioning ? I meant, assuming a total 30MB bw, the 
> first LSP has been configured with 25MB. Could I create another LSP with 
> 10MB bw ? It's sort of overbooking ;-)

Taking autobandwidth aside, you have control over the bandwidth available
for TE, and the physical bandwidth available.  By setting these values based
on your policies you can determine how you wish to overbook (or underbook)
in normal and failure situations.


A question I've been asked before is how complex is it to manage the network
to deliver the benefits of MPLS-TE?  This depends upon the scale of the
network.  However, I know of at least one management tool that supports the
operator in managing all the above criteria and more...;-)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Tom Richards
Parc Technologies Ltd.
8th Floor 
The Tower Building
11 York Road
London SE1 7NX

Tel: +44 (0)20 7261 4002
Mob: +44 (0)7989 854420
www.parc-technologies.com
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