MPLS 2002, a premier annual conference focused on emerging Internetworking technologies, was held October 27-29, 2002. This was the fifth conference in a series that started with MPLS 98 - the very first International conference held on MPLS.

MPLS 2002 was hosted by Isocore in association with leading Internet Service Providers Cable & Wireless, France Telecom, NTT, and Worldcom. The conference was sponsored by Alcatel, Avici Systems, Cisco Systems, Cosine Communications, Extreme Networks, Ixia, Juniper Networks, Laurel Networks, Lucent Technologies, NetTest, NEC, Nortel Networks, Redback Networks, Spirent Communications, and other leading network equipment suppliers.

The technical program covered a wide array of MPLS topics such as Layer 2 and Layer 3 VPNs, Internetworking, Network Management, Security, Traffic Engineering, QoS, Resiliency, and GMPLS/Optical Networks.

The technical session on Layer 2 VPNs covered VPN architectures such as Pseudowires, Virtual Private Wire Service (VPWS), and Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS). Presenters shared their views on how signaling of Layer 2 VPNS should be done - the two primary camps being for targeted LDP and BGP. Service providers participating in the the Service & Internetworking Issues Panel shared the view that MPLS may be used to converge different legacy networks onto one network to reduce operating expenses. One migration strategy would be to keeping existing customers and sites in the legacy networks while using MPLS for new customers and sites.

One of the talks in the Layer 3 VPNs session compared the Virtual Router based Layer 3 VPNs with RFC 2547bis based Layer 3 VPNs and proposed an approach that combines both to take advantage of the enhanced management capabilities of the Virtual Router with the scalability advantages of RFC 2547bis model. Another speaker proposed to add hierarchy to RFC 2547bis based VPNs by extending MPLS to an aggregation router between the PE router and CE router to increase scalability.

In the Network Management Session the approaches developed by the IETF (LSP Ping) and ITU (Y.1711) were compared. The Security Session included a talk that integrated BGP/MPLS VPNs, IPSec, and NAT in one PE, an approach that relied on use of IPSec for PE-PE communication. Several discussions on the ways and means to protect the control, data, and management planes from abuse by VPN customers were presented.

The presentations in the Protection and Recovery session described different resiliency mechanisms such as Fast ReRoute (FRR), dynamic routing, and backup LSPs. Numerical comparisons of restoration times with FRR and dynamic routing were provided for different network topologies.

The session on Optical Networks provided views on inherent impairment characteristics of optical networks and how they can be taken into account in routing, interoperability of the Optical UNI and GMPLS Protocols, techniques for routing and wavelength assignment, integration of packet and optical networks, and how GMPLS can be used for building photonic, hierarchical, and hybrid optical networks. Integrating Differentiated Services and MPLS TE, its advantages, required IGP signaling extensions, and its applications was one of the topics in the Traffic Engineering session. This session also included an interesting approach for determining LSP routes on-line while using a global traffic distribution matrix. The conference was followed by the 3rd Public Interoperability Demonstration that took place at Isocore's state-of-the-art Internetworking Lab facility in McLean, Virginia.

One of the important outcomes of the Isocore Internetworking Lab’s October 2002 TAC meeting was the announcement of Isocore’s new interoperability testing program, “IP-Based Control and Management of Optical Networks (IPCMON)”. The scope of the program was discussed with service providers and equipment vendors during the TAC meeting, and a phased approach with initial focus on optical connection control was adopted. Tests will also cover new protocols for management of optical networks and IP routing protocol enhancements for advertising optical network parameters. The Isocore IPCMON program is driven by three main objectives: i) to foster rapid adoption of the IPCMON technology in the commercial market, ii) to validate the technology for deployment by carriers through demonstrating interoperability between products from different vendors, and iii) to help in progressing standardization process relating to IPCMON. Protocols and architectures for IP-based control and management of optical networks that will be tested at Isocore are being developed by the IETF, OIF, and the ITU-T.

In the IETF, the architecture for IP-based control and management of optical networks was seen as a generalization of MPLS and hence referred to as GMPLS. GMPLS extends MPLS to encompass time division switching (e.g. SONET/SDH), wavelength switching (optical lambdas), and spatial switching (e.g. incoming port or fiber to outgoing port or fiber). Label Switched Paths (LSPs) are no longer limited to paths where forwarding is based on the MPLS packet header, but also cover TDM connections, wavelength-switched optical connections, and fiber switched optical connections. In GMPLS, an IP-based control channel that may or may not be associated with a particular data channel is used for LSP setup and teardown, routing, and link management. IETF has developed a GMPLS Control plane based on extensions to RSVP-TE as well as CR-LDP; and GMPLS routing protocols based on extensions to OSPF-TE and ISIS-TE. IETF is also developing a Link Management Protocol (LMP) to control channel management, link property correlation, link connectivity verification, and fault management. GMPLS introduces the following enhancements to MPLS signaling that are important from the point of view of interoperability testing: