Application Driven Comparison of T-MPLS/MPLS-TP and PBB-TE - Driver Choices for Carrier Ethernet

This paper describes qualitatively and through applications the comparison of PBB-TE and T-MPLS/MPLS-TP approaches to Carrier Ethernet. Carrier Ethernet has currently been proposed as a method to transport Ethernet in metro networks with carrier class service attributes. Two approaches have been considered - one based on backbone bridging called PBB-TE and the other based on T- MPLS/MPLS-TP that has evolved from MPLS minus some redundant features. We qualitatively understand the two technologies, delve into their working and compare these from multiple standpoints. We then develop scenarios where these are used including data-center, mobile back-haul and IPTV (video on demand). Both PBB-TE and T-MPLS are applied to each of these three leading metro application (that are expected to dominate much of future metro services). Cost and performance comparisons are shown.