Introduction to MPLS/VPN Deployment

Whenever a new technology is introduced, there are always issues to address and design choices to make so that the deployment can reach a successful conclusion. This is no different in the case of the MPLS/VPN architecture and its introduction into the network.

This chapter builds on the previous chapter, which provided information on the scaling properties of the MPLS/VPN architecture. This chapter aims to highlight some of the issues that you will face and to provide some suggestions on techniques and methodologies to overcome these problems. It also presents some of the issues with a traditional backbone environment and shows how the introduction of the MPLS/VPN architecture affects the service provider. To assist in the illustration of these techniques, we will use the SuperCom backbone network that we have seen in previous chapters.

These suggestions should not be viewed as a replacement to thorough design and migration planning, or as a substitute to extensive design testing. The purpose of these guidelines is to highlight some of the issues that you might face and to provide solutions that may be appropriate to certain network deployments.