Journal of Information Systems and Telecommunication

Discuss about the Journal of Information Systems and Telecommunication.

Introduction

The report is prepared for the presentation of a comparative study on the operation of the multiprotocol label switching, virtual private LAN services and the metropolitan Ethernet. The MPLS, VPLS and the Metro Ethernet are used for delivering a connectivity with the different form of service level agreements and maintaining the quality of service in the network. The metro Ethernet is an Ethernet based standard used for connecting the different areas of the network (ComputerWeekly.com. 2018). The MPLS offers a functionality in the network that can be installed in the network router for the implementation of virtual switching service for a meshed connection and improvise the security of the network. The VPLS are used for the locating the end point using the Mac address of the destination host and it is based on Ethernet and supports the geographically distributed Ethernet network. Thera are different enterprise that are dependent on the service providers for interconnecting the VoIP sites. The organization outsource the network rather than developing their own network infrastructure nut the service that are essential for the organizational network should be identified for development of the best network solution for combining all the branches and enabling communication between the departments of the organization.

The report is prepared for discussing the different connectivity options that are available for the development of a network solution and connect with the different service level agreement for maintaining the quality of service in the network.

The above MPLS network acts as a backbone of the network and an MPLS enabled router is used and the main component of the network are the core LSR and the edge LSR and it is configured with the interior gateway protocol such as OSPF for forwarding the data packets in different areas of the network. The cost of the implementation of the MPLS is higher than configuring a normal metro Ethernet network but there are several other advantage for the application of the MPLS because the scalability of the network can be improved with the application of the MPLS configuration. It can be applied for WAN routing and keep the routing minimum between the source and the destination network. The latency of the network can be reduces with the application of the MPLS and increasing the sensitivity of the VOIP services. 

MPLS multi-protocol label switching is a functionality of the network that can be offered as a network service and it can be configured on a network router for an enterprise network. It follows a different mechanism than the normal IP network by enabling a virtual circuit service in the mesh network for improvising the security of the network solution (ComputerWeekly.com. 2018). The data traffic can be assigned in the multiple levels for the management of the quality of service and guaranteeing the performance for the network latency, packet loss and jitter. The VOIP network is connected with the MPLS service via the local access lines.

The MPLS are used for offering a full mesh architecture and providing the following two benefits for the enterprise network. With the implementation of the mesh architecture the performance of site to site can be improved and causes less congestion and loads in the local as well as the remote networks (Bryant, Sivabalan and Soni 2016). Meshing of the network and adding the subsequent node is an automated process for the development of the connection less technology. The IP address are used for working with the MPLS and it can eliminate the flooding problem which is a major concern for the Metro Ethernet.

Operation of VPLS

It is a VPN service used in the network based on Ethernet for communicating with the different multipoint using the MPLS or IP networks. VPLS virtual private LAN service uses the Ethernet as its backbone and used for the management of the network which is geographically distributed. The sites located in diverse geographical location are able to share the same Ethernet broadcast domain by interconnecting the sites using pseudo wires. The MPLS is used as the backbone of the transportation of the data packets but the interface is kept as a national or regional Ethernet (Mirsky et al. 2017). The location of the enterprise network seems to be connected in the same Ethernet network but in reality the data packets traverse uses the MPLS network of the service provider for sending and receiving the data packets in the different branches of the enterprise. The VPLS is based on the virtual private networking technology and enables multipoint connectivity with the network. Label distribution protocol and border gateway protocol are used for the establishment of a full mesh network topology. The interface used for the connection should support the 100 mbps bandwidth such that the Virtual Private LAN service supports the service level agreement and maintain a minimum speed of 1 to 100 mbps in the network.

The Mac address is used by the VPLS for locating the end point of the network and it does not uses the IP address. The TRP header is considered for the compression of the VPLS and it is integrated with the enterprise router facing the VPLS (Boutros et al., 2016). With the application of the header compression the bandwidth requirement for the voice packets reduces from 20 to 60 percentage.

For the application of the VPLS the requirement of the network should be analysed because it works well for the small network with few number of sites. Ethernet broadcast messages are flooded in the network and it consumes a percentage of the bandwidth and it cannot be avoided with purchasing higher bandwidth and application of QoS. If the internet connectivity is used for the connecting with the branch office then the VPLS connection can perform well but is there is a requirement to scale 100 of remote sites VPLS is not the right choice for the enterprise. In that case the configuration of the network with MPLS would be a better choice for connecting the remote sites with the central network.

Metro Ethernet is a system in view of the Ethernet standard that serves metropolitan regions by means of metropolitan zone systems (MANs). It can be utilized as a metropolitan access organize, associating business endorsers and individual clients to a WAN, or to give interchanges inside the metropolitan territory. Metro Ethernet additionally bolsters high data transfer capacities, for example, 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps. Preference of an Ethernet-based access arrange is that it can be associated with the endeavour organize as a standard interface (Pulcini et al.,  2016). An average specialist organization issued Metro Ethernet arrange is made out of Layer 2 or 3 switches and switches. The topology can be a ring or star, and completely or halfway coincided. The centre, much of the time, works over a current MPLS spine. It acts as the backbone of the network and can be combined with the MPLS and the VPLS configuration for increasing the security of the network solution. It is affordable and necessary for interconnecting the different sites located in different geographical location. It helps in interconnecting the data centres with the local area network of an organization and offers higher throughput and lower latency of the network. It can be used for different purpose such as creation of a disaster recovery network and ensuring successful of the data packets in the network.

Despite the fact that Metro Ethernet benefit works like any Ethernet, utilizing it for Voice and Video over IP requires that the endeavour buy in to ongoing correspondences (RTC), which gives the most abnormal amount of QoS by guaranteeing the least conceivable dormancy, jitter and bundle misfortune (Gomez-Sacristan, Sempere-Paya and Rodriguez-Hernandez 2016). The most well-known ongoing usage uses the IEEE 802.1p standard for parcel stamping. The undertaking ought not to interface the IP telephones straightforwardly to the administration. In the event that they are straightforwardly associated, communicated surges can happen. It is smarter to associate the IP telephone through a switch to the support of abstain from flooding.

It enhances the data integrity of the network a class of service can be recognized that is attached after the network layer and above the IP address. The configuration of the network is done to make the network work under any condition and prioritize the data traffic (Kamoun and Outay 2018). It have an improved utilization of the bandwidths and reduces congestion in the network paths.

The main disadvantage of the MPLS network is that there is a requirement to upgrade the network equipment’s installed in different location of the network if the router is not field upgradable (Saleem and Tahir 2017). It a complex task to configure a MPLS network and for using static routing the service provider is responsible to route the data using their MPLS cloud.

It is available at a cheaper rates and a simple T1 Ethernet connection is used for connecting with the internet at the high speed possible. It is fully configurable and the WAN engineers would have the total control on the VPN tunnel for maintaining the privacy of the network (Iqbal, Benoit and Dar 2017). It provides different upgradable features such as implementation of the QoS scalable IPSec VPN tunnels between the multiple sites connected in the network.

The limited QoS is a drawback of the VPLS, for the development of a fully functional QoS model all the network equipment’s should be controlled (Qiu et al. 2017). Moreover the rate of packet loss and latency is higher and thus the performance of the network for voice and video is undependable.

Metropolitan Ethernet (Metro Ethernet)

It is applied for creating a secure and reliable network for communicating with the enterprise network. It can securely transfer the confidential files and information in a network. The metro Ethernet network is highly scalable and the client can increase the bandwidth and pay as per the model selected thus improves the cost effectivity for a long run network (Nugraha, Fitrianto and Bacharuddin 2016). Multiple locations can be connected and the bandwidth requirement can be changed by consulting with the service provider.

When it is compared with the MPLS the disadvantage of the metro Ethernet is that it does not provides QoS support (Becker et al. 2017).

From the analysis of the MPLS, VPLS and the Metro Ethernet it has been found that the selection of the MPLS network would benefit the network current organization for increasing the efficiency of the network by reducing the congestion and data loss in the current network. The priority of the data packet should be set for successfully delivering the data packet to the destination address in the network.  The network bandwidth can be utilized efficiently and for increasing the security of the network the application of the VPLs would be an ideal choice for the organization.

The Metro Ethernet is designed for carrying the different types of configuration and its acts as the backbone of the network. If a company have a headquarter in London and has 10 branch offices in different geographical location and they are required to be interconnected with each other in the same LAN the Metro Ethernet is used. It creates a tunnel in the network by interconnecting the different offices in the same VLAN and The MPLS configuration is used for sending the data packets to the branches via internet route and creating a peer connection. The MPLS VPN is started when the data traffic reaches the PE network and it needs to redirect it to all the sites. The MPLS works on the layer 3 for the configuration of the adjacency and transferring the data packet over the network. For carrying the data packet the VPLS service must be configured in the carried Ethernet and the metro Ethernet and should be configured with VPLS for encrypting the data packets and securely sending it to the destination location.  

A network topology is designed in cisco packet tracer 7.1 and the network devices connected in the network are configured using the three different technology and demonstrated in the report.

Conclusion

From the above report it can be concluded that with the research has been made on the different technology that can be applied for the development of the network infrastructure. The report is prepared for the demonstration of the different functions and operations for the identification of the advantages and disadvantages of each of the technology when applied in the real life scenario. Metro Ethernet, VPLS and MPLS can support VoIP data packet transmission in the network effectively. For the deployment of each of the service different interface should be used and among the choice the VPLS is the simplest solution. The application of MPLS enables a large growth potential on the network and the application of the Metro Ethernet helps in increasing the speed of delivery of data packets in the network. The service should be selected depending on the requirement of the organization and in context with the service and features that are used by the enterprise for the management of the network infrastructure.

Recommendations

After making a comparative study on the MPLS, VPLS, Metro Ethernet it has been found that the MPLS is the best suited for all types of network for transferring the data and voice packets in the network. The multi-protocol label switching, virtual private LAN service and metropolitan Ethernet are used for carrying the IP traffic and supporting the VOIP transmission using the same network for data and voice delivery. The Lan switches and the routers can be connected with each other and the service should be enabled for management of the network without the additional network device deployed in the network. The configuration of the network with the frame relay service benefits the MPLS, VPN and the Metro Ethernet network by providing a fully mesh VOIP connectivity. It can also help in expansion of the network in future and reduce the data traffic in the network for increasing the efficiency of the transmission of the data packets in different devices connected in the network.

References

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Boutros, S., Shah, H., Venkatesan, M., Aldrin, S. and Sivabalan, S., 2016. Media Access Control (MAC) Address Withdrawal over Static Pseudowire.

Bryant, S., Sivabalan, S. and Soni, S., 2016. UDP Return Path for Packet Loss and Delay Measurement for MPLS Networks(No. RFC 7876).

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