V.A. Clincy, N. Abu-Halaweh, and P. Mudiraj (USA)
MPLS, Multimedia Networking, Performance, Routing Protocols
Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is helpful in managing multimedia traffic when some links or paths are under and/or over utilized. This paper presents a comparative analysis of an MPLS and non-MPLS network with high-traffic generating multi-media applications implemented over a highly utilized network. The multi-media type applications used in the study generate a significant amount of bytes per second. In addition to large traffic loads, the multi-media traffic had to be transmitted in streams versus bursts in providing desired quality-of-service levels. This study shows that Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) improved network performance for multi-media type applications in heavy traffic environments. MPLS facilitates a method where streams of video and voice IP packets traverse through a switched network without changing their structure. With MPLS, the processing time for these IP packets is supposedly reduced at each Label Switching Router (LSR) because the need for a layer-3 lookup is eliminated. Routing information is also reduced in MPLS based networks because network traffic can be directed to utilize links and nodes having less congestion and/or lower cost association. Traffic engineering is the main strength of MPLS. Where an IP-based network is connectionless, an MPLS-based network defines definite paths for network traffic based on some quality-of-service level. The following simulation study is an effort to quantitatively illustrate the benefit of using MPLS in implementing multimedia applications in a heavy traffic environment. The study is divided into two parts listed below 1)A non-MPLS network for high-traffic multimedia applications 2)A MPLS enabled network for high-traffic multimedia applications
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