MPLS-TP is a standard under development by the IETF for packet optical transport networks. The key objective of the IETF effort is to provide a universal standard for packet optical transport that maintains many of the operational characteristics associated with SONET/SDH and OTN and is compatible with existing IP/MPLS networks.

An important aspect of MPLS-TP is OAM. The requirements of MPLS-TP OAM have been jointly approved by the ITU-T and the IETF and have been published as RFC 5860, “Requirements for OAM in MPLS-TP Networks”. The basis of the requirements, and a keystone of the MPLS-TP OAM protocols, is that they should provide the complete set of OAM capabilities that are both supported by legacy transport network technologies and applicable in packet-switched networks. Recently there has been a proposal in the IETF to allow a modified version of Y.1731, the OAM protocol used in Carrier Ethernet networks, to be used for MPLS-TP OAM. For the purposes of this paper we will call this approach “Proprietary Transport Extensions” or PTE.

For more information about ACG Research's business case analysis service, click here or contact  sales@acgcc.com.