This really depends on whether or not they are pitching a Layer 2 VPN service or a Layer 3 VPN service. With the former, there shouldn't be much of any reconfig at your end as the transport mechanism with the SP will remain transparent to you. With the latter, you'd would transition much of your routing control (inter-office) to the SP. In that case, you could default into the SP cloud at each site making things rather simple. Your gear would not need to be MPLS aware. The service provider would maintain an isolated routing domain specific to your enterprise and would use MPLS purely as a transport mechanism across its own backbone in effect isolating your traffic from its other customers.
At 12:23 PM 2/27/2002 -0500, John Neiberger wrote: >Okay, I'm about to show how clueless I am when it comes to MPLS.... > >I've been getting calls from multiple providers lately all trying to >suggest that I migrate our 100-site frame relay network to their MPLS >network, suggesting that we'll have any-to-any connectivity and the >ability to prioritize traffic classes within the MPLS network. > >Are any of you doing something like this? I'm going to read up on it >but I'm having trouble visualizing it. Does this basically turn our >network into a giant multipoint network? Do our branch routers need to >be aware of MPLS or do providers make this transparent somehow? How >does this affect routing? > >It seems that if we have any-to-any connectivity then the branch >routers don't even need to run a routing protocol; every router would >have one exit point to get to any destination. But, how would the MPLS >cloud know where to route packets? The more I think about it it seems >like our branch routers would have to participate in MPLS to provide the >necessary destination info for the MPLS cloud. > >See how clueless I am? Ugh... Time to do some studying on this. >Since we already do a little video conferencing over IP and are working >on getting VoIP working, it might be beneficial to get away from the >frame relay network. But since I don't understand this new technology, >I don't know if it's a viable solution for us or not. > >Off to CCO I go! > >Thanks, >John Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=36806&t=36670 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
