Generalized MPLS - an overview

GMPLS, being developed by IETF and OIF, has been proposed to address traffic engineering to a variety of networking technology, and to serve in a variety of network signaling layers, extending capabilities beyond those networks that are only packet-based. GMPLS is an extension of MPLS and it provides a control plane for devices that switch in the time, packet, wavelength, and fiber domains. This common control plane promises to simplify network operation and management by automating end-to-end provisioning of connections, managing network resources, and providing QoS. One of the main architecture enhancements proposed by GMPLS is the complete separation of the control and data planes, allowing high performance, intelligent networking while simplifying networks by combining transport and multiservice switching into a single layered network.