The MPLS WG Archive

[Fred Baker <fred@cisco.com>]

At 05:36 PM 6/10/2002 -0700, Eric He wrote:
>Integrated Service is used to implement end-to-end microflow level in 
>IP-based network.  But if we can create a host-to-host lightpath using 
>GMPLS, is Integrated Service still necessary to ensure end-to-end Quality 
>of Service? Any comments are more than welcome!

if it's literally light, done with mirrors, there are no queues, and 
configuring queues is unnecessary. You still have the question of whether 
the amount of bandwidth used by the telephone traffic exceeds the amount 
permitted by policy, or if there is no policy, the amount of bandwidth 
available.

If it an OEO solution, you still have the distinct possibility of queues 
forming in the network, and there are questions there.

The lightpath will almost certainly be part of an end-to-end solution; at 
least my PC doesn't have a fiber output on the back, and the hotel room I 
stayed in a few nights ago lacked an optical connection. You also need to 
address the end to end solution even if the optical portion of it is solved.

In short, there is still no magic. You can massively overprovision so that 
there is no case in which traffic engineering is relevant; in such a case, 
your part of the network probably has no current requirement, either for 
QoS or for traffic engineering. If you don't, you have to think about the 
effects of your network on the applications using it.