Several Issues in the Development of Packet Transport Networks

Several key issues affect the development and standardization of Packet Transport Networks (PTN) and Multiprotocol Label Switching Transport Profile (MPLS-TP). These include the end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) mechanism, layered network architecture,introduction of layer-3 functions, and data-plane loopback functions. This paper introduces several views on the construction and maintenance of PTN, and on the requirements of PTN services. After an analysis of Traffic Engineering (TE) based on Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) and Differentiated Service (DiffServ), a service-oriented end-to-end QoS guarantee mechanism is proposed. An alternative to introducing layer-3 functions into PTN is also proposed, based on PTN layered architecture defined in the available MPLS-TP standards and drafts. Requirements of data-plane loopback functions are discussed in conclusion.