GMPLS controlled ethernet: an emerging packet-oriented transport technology

Most of the world's traffic is now packet-based. While SONET/SDH transport technology continues to evolve, there are now major standardization efforts to develop a native packet-oriented transport technology. Ethernet, long dominant in the enterprise, is one of the fastest developing technologies for the transport layer. GMPLS, based on mature signaling and routing protocols, is gaining traction as a transport control plane, providing fast restoration and supporting automation of provisioning. We will briefly highlight recent Ethernet standardization and then introduce the concepts and standards work allowing GMPLS to control Ethernet.