The MPLS WG Archive

[Yakov Rekhter <yakov@juniper.net>]

Kireeti,

> On Thu, 11 Nov 2004, SP wrote:
> 
> > since MPLS over ip over ethernet...
> > and since ip over ethernet (layer 3 over layer 2)...
> 
> Let MPLS be Layer N.
> 
> By the above, N > 3.
> 
> You can also carry Ethernet over MPLS,
> 
> Hence, 2 > N.
> 
> Therefore, 2 > 3.  QED.
> 
> Hope that helps :-)

Just to help more, here are few points from one of my presentations
on (G)MPLS:

(G)MPLS is not a Network Layer on its own, as it does not have routing
and addressing on its own - it uses IP addressing + IP routing (with
extensions)

(G)MPLS is not a Link Layer because MPLS works over various Link Layer
technologies (e.g., SONET, Ethernet, ATM, etc.)

(G)MPLS is not a Layer in the OSIRM (OSI Reference Model) sense as it
does not have a single format for transport of the data from the
layer above (e.g., (G)MPLS uses "shim" on SONET, VCI/VPI on ATM, time
slot on TDM, lambda on OXC, etc...).

Yakov.

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