The MPLS WG Archive

[Vijay Gill <vijay@umbc.edu>]

[ folks, it doesn't hurt to trim headers ]

On Thu, 26 Oct 2000, Eric Rosen wrote:

> Randy> if an enterprise wanting to deploy it is not an isp, then they'll
> Randy> need their own layer 1 or2 connectivity between all endpoints. 
> 
> Just to be  clear, you are saying  that, to the best of  your knowledge, all
> networks fall into one of the following two categories:
> 
> 1. needs to carry all Internet routes to every edge

Having worked at one or two promising local ISPs, I assure you that the
plan of deploying two routers where one will do (and where one is just to
aggregate VPN customers) is something that will not fly very well.

This of course leads to a realistic scenario where you have the minimum
number of routers necessary to satisfy the business need at the edge and
since a couple of customers insist on having full routes, well....

I suspect this is where Randy is coming from. Given that routers _barely_
work as it is, we'd much rather wish this additional problem onto someone
else than have it sit in the ISP core, where routers crashing lead to SLA
violations and asosciated pain.

> 2. needs complete mesh of layer 2 connections between all endpoints. 
> 
> I had no  idea that all networks  fell into one of these  two categories!  I
> don't know how I missed that ;-)

Just most _realistic_ ISP networks fall into case 1.

/vijay