12 February 2003 -- The MPLS Forum and EANTC announced the successful completion of a multi-vendor MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) VPN (Virtual Private Network) scalability and resiliency interoperability test event.
The test, which was showcased at the MPLS World Congress in Paris, last week, was conducted with the cooperation of the ETSI Interoperability Service and hosted by French events organiser Upper Side.
Thirteen network equipment vendors participated in a one-week interoperability program that comprehensively tested MPLS VPN scalability. The tests also verified MPLS Fast Reroute techniques, proving that the carriers can offer quality guarantees for the typical services they provide to their customers over a MPLS network.
One of the services tested was TDM over IP over MPLS, which requires SONET/SDH-grade carrier class recovery characteristics.
"The scalability achieved during MPLS VPN testing was representative of real network deployments, while using edge devices from different manufacturers." said Ananda Sen Gupta, Chair of the Interoperability Committee, MPLS Forum, and Business Development Manager, Asia-Pacific, Agilent Technologies.
"The RSVP-TE Fast Reroute testing covered both of the two techniques being discussed in the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) draft on the topic, taking one more step towards assuring resiliency of MPLS networks. In this way, this event was a major step forward in establishing the fact that MPLS is right for service provider deployments today � it can support new revenue generating services as well as legacy services in a scalable fashion, and with the required service quality guarantees."
Participating vendors were Agilent Technologies, Alcatel, Avici Systems, Cisco Systems, Data Connection, IXIA, NetPlane, Nortel Networks, Quallaby, RAD Data Communications, Redback Networks, Riverstone Networks and Spirent Communications.
The MPLS Forum is an industry-wide association of leading networking and telecommunications companies driving the successful deployment of multi-vendor MPLS networks and associated applications. The Forum achieves through interoperability initiatives, implementation agreements, and educational programs.
For more information about The MPLS Forum, please contact Alexa Morris, MPLS Forum Executive Director, at (510) 608-5914 or via e-mail at [email protected].
Additional information regarding Forum membership and the Forum's mission is available online at www.mplsforum.org/