The MPLS-OPS Archive

["Thomas D. Nadeau" <tnadeau@cisco.com>]

	Hi all,

	We wanted to pass this onto the MPLS community. Apologies
for cross-posts to other WG lists you might be on.

	Tom/Vishal/Ashwin



                                     CALL FOR PAPERS
                              ------------------------------

IEEE Communications Magazine Feature Topic on
"Next-Generation Carrier Ethernet Transport Technologies”

Over the last few years, the share of packet-dominated traffic has  
grown exponentially in networks worldwide. As a result packet-based  
transport technologies such as MPLS are increasingly deemed to be  
more efficient for carrying this traffic compared to legacy SDH/SONET  
technology (and its next-generation incarnations) or the more  
familiar ATM/FR technology. A majority of this traffic is now either  
Ethernet or Internet Protocol (IP), so enterprises (and even  
residential customers) familiar with Ethernet technology have begun  
demanding a simple, inexpensive and high-speed universal Ethernet  
service. With the availability of low-cost, high-bandwidth Ethernet  
beyond the Local Area Network, the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) has  
defined such a service as Carrier Ethernet, and defined it as a  
ubiquitous, standardized, carrier-class service/application  
characterized by some key attributes: reliability, hard Quality-of- 
Service (QoS), service management, and scalability.

These features set it apart from the ubiquitously deployed LAN-based  
Ethernet and serve as an add-on to switched Ethernet (GigE, and  
10GigE variants). There are, however, several options for building  
the underlying transport infrastructure to deliver such a carrier  
Ethernet service. These include, for example, using: IP/MPLS  
technology to deliver point-to-point Ethernet circuits joined  
together with physical Ethernet bridges/switches; IP/MPLS with  
Virtual-Private LAN Service (VPLS) or Hierarchical Virtual Private  
LAN Service (H-VPLS) (developed at the IETF); Transport-MPLS (T-MPLS)  
being proposed at the ITU-T, using modified Ethernet technology with  
Provider Backbone Bridging (PBB) and Provider-Backbone Transport  
(PBT) being proposed at the IEEE; using a combination of a modified  
Ethernet data-plane and a GMPLS-based control-plane with VLAN cross- 
connect (being proposed by several vendors and under consideration at  
the IETF) and Circuit Emulation Services (CES) over an Ethernet  
fabric to provision Pseudo Wires (PWs).

The quest, therefore, is for the most feature rich, and CAPEX/OPEX  
efficient, packet-based transport infrastructure for next-generation  
Carrier Ethernet services. Debate and discussion is rife in the  
industry and the academic/research communities about which technology  
will provide the best combination of cost, ease of use, OAM features,  
performance and service management, ability to offer Quality-of- 
Service (QoS) guarantees, traffic engineering, and resilience, and  
capability to manage and bill for services running atop the transport  
infrastructure.

This special issue aims to consolidate and disseminate the latest  
developments and advances in transport technology options for Carrier  
Ethernet service. With this objective, the list of topics includes  
(but will not be limited to) the following:

•           Metro Ethernet and Carrier Ethernet evolutions –  
requirements, services specifications, carrier drivers, customer drivers
•           Requirements on QoS, traffic engineering, resilience,  
manageability, OAM, and service scalability for carrier Ethernet  
transport technologies
•           IP/MPLS (VPLS, H-VPLS) for carrier Ethernet services –  
choices, pros, cons, costs/benefits
•           Provider Backbone Bridging (PBB) and Provider Backbone  
Transport-Traffic Engineered (PBT-TE) as alternatives to IP/MPLS for  
Ethernet transport – pros, cons, costs/benefits
•           Transport-MPLS for carrier Ethernet – pros, cons, costs/ 
benefits
•           GMPLS-based control of Ethernet networks – changes in the  
data and control planes
•           Assessment of the proposed transport solutions in terms  
of their ability to provide QoS, traffic engineering, resilience,  
manageability, and so on.
•           OAM, network management, service management – options,  
choices, pitfalls, needs, and cost analysis and comparison of solutions.
•           Solutions that meet the perceived requirements of the  
community that are alternatives to the ones being proposed in the  
various standards bodies.
•           Traffic engineering and dimensioning of carrier Ethernet  
transport networks
•           Techniques to ensure QoS, especially with a mix of  
transport technologies in use
•           Analysis and studies of resilience and protection  
approaches utilized by different transport architectures and  
associated technologies
•           Studies comparing the different transport technologies  
along multiple dimensions – deployment cost, day-to-day running cost,  
features provided, ease of deployment/management, and so on
•           Comparisons and case-studies from the provider community  
to highlight why existing technologies do not meet current and  
evolving provider requirements.
•           Commentaries from providers who feel existing techniques/ 
choices meet their requirements or can be easily modified to meet  
their requirements.
•           Network operators, vendors, and standards bodies’  
perspectives on any of the above.
•           Implementations, test-beds and field trials related to  
carrier Ethernet transport technologies
•           State of current standards

Submission

Articles should be tutorial in nature and should be written in a  
style comprehensible to readers outside the specialty of the article.  
Articles may be edited for clarity and grammatical accuracy, and will  
be copyedited according to the Magazine's style. Mathematical  
equations should not be used (in justified cases up to three simple  
equations could be allowed, provided there is consent of the Guest  
Editor; more than three equations require permission from the Editor- 
in-Chief). Articles should have no more than 4,500 words, no more  
than 6 tables/figures, and no more than 15 references. Guidelines for  
prospective authors can be found on-line at http://www.comsoc.org/ 
pubs/commag/sub_guidelines.html. Please submit no later than 31 July  
2007. All articles to be considered for publication must be submitted  
through IEEE Manuscript Central (http://commag- 
ieee.manuscriptcentral.com). Please select "March 2008/Next- 
Generation Carrier Ethernet Transport Technologies" in the drop down  
menu. Accepted papers will also be included in Communications  
Interactive (CI), the online version of Communications Magazine.

Manuscript Due:                        1 August  2007
Acceptance Notification:             1 November 2007
Final Manuscript Due:                1 December 2007
Publication Date:                       March 2008


Guest Editors
Thomas D. Nadeau, Cisco Systems, Inc., (tnadeau@cisco.com)
Vishal Sharma, Metanoia, Inc. (v.sharma@ieee.org)
Ashwin Gumaste, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (ashwing@ieee.org)





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