Re: Missing pieces in draft-team-tewg-restore-hierarchy-00.txt

[Jim Boyle <jimpb@nc.rr.com>]

Sudheer - you raise an interesting question...

On Thu, 16 Aug 2001, Sudheer Dharanikota wrote:

> Hi all:
>
> I have following comments on the design team draft presented at
> IETF. I already discussed some of these comments with
> Wai.

<snip>

> 3. Although you say only horizontal hierarchy is considered, we propose
> atleaset two layer (Client and Server layer) capabilities should be
> considered.
> Example, if the server layer is optical or SONET/SDH then it itself can
> possess some restoration capabilities, which need to be considered by
> the client layer technologies. This helps in choosing the protection and
>
> restoration mechanisms wisely.
>


It was felt in the design team that carriers are not quite at the point of
deploying GMPLS into their optical cores, not quite yet.  And even if they
had GMPLS cores, ready to be tapped into by routers from *within* their
company - most felt a bit uneasy about this prospect.

Are there folks deploying GMPLS Optical Cores that are worried that there
will be a time real soon when their routers won't be able to signal for
bandwidth on demand?  Or that there might be some crucial piece of
communication their Optical Core might be able to confer to their Routers
that might change their behavior (that couldn't be conferred in a more
ready manner - such as by configuration of the router) ??

The area that did seem more pressing was how to support edge to edge
signaling across a data network, which might have OSPF areas.  There
was concern about scalability, and a desire to have folks look into
approaches which would allow edge to edge signaling in a manner which
is more scalable than possible today.  The recurring context for such
a need was VPNs (mpls presumably) over IP/MPLS networks.  The need to
signal edge to edge might very well be questioned, however some folks
seem to think that if a VPN product offers an SLA, this is somehow
necessary.

Anyone else think that the "vertical" hierarchy is pressing (or a
non-issue at this time)?

Anyone have interesting operational perspectives which clarify the
"horizontal" requirements?

regards,

Jim