GMPLS network security: Gap analysis

As contrasted to the management plane of today's and emerging networks architectures, the control plane will not be as easy to secure. The control plane is an emerging concept that is part of most large scale, high-speed next generation networks. This may also include the architectures that are being researched to go beyond Internet2. Today the control plane originally defined for generalized multi-protocol label switching (GMPLS) is being considered for implementations such as T-MPLS, MPLS-TE, and Ethernet PBB-PBT. In the future, these network switching techniques and the supporting control plane will be supporting the SWIM approach now advocated as part of the NextGen service oriented architecture. The security threats that are being defined and reviewed in the IETF are only part of the story. This paper organizes the categories of threats and provides an understanding of the defensive techniques and gaps to providing security for the control plane.