| As an escalation engineer, I experienced the boom of Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) networking first hand. I saw the first trials of MPLS in service provider networks and saw MPLS successfully expanding further into enterprise networks. In addition, I witnessed new MPLS technologies coming into existence, which the networking industry embraced quickly. The first deployments of these new MPLS technologies were not always flawless, but they were always interesting.
The success of MPLS is undoubtedly a result of the fact that it enables the network to carry all kinds of traffic, ranging from IP traffic to Voice over IP (VoIP) traffic to Layer 2 traffic. MPLS is the means for an IP network to consolidate many networks into one. MPLS can consolidate the ATM, Frame Relay, Voice, and IP networks into one unified network infrastructure, thereby generating a huge cost advantage.
MPLS has matured a lot and is a stable technology, seeing many new deployments and new features. Given the fact that MPLS is based on IP, and the Internet is based on IP technology, it seems that the future of MPLS is ensured for quite a while to come. Configuring MPLS on Cisco IOS is relatively simple, but much knowledge is needed to understand what to configure and how to troubleshoot when the MPLS network has problems. This book gives you this knowledge and highlights things from my own experience to warn you of pitfalls. |
