OAM and protection mechanisms for MPLS-TP packet transport networks

MPLS Transport Profile (TP) uses a subset of the existing MPLS toolkit which represents the minimal amount of functionality that is needed in a transport network environment. MPLS-TP delivers the richness and reliability of operations, administration and maintenance (OAM) mechanisms that are characteristics of transport technology at the same time as it will support packet-based services more efficiently than conventional transport networks. Also, MPLS-TP protection switching technologies in the area of packet transport networks have been developed to meet the requirement of sub 50ms traffic recovery in case of a link failure. This paper discusses the MPLS-TP OAM and protection mechanisms that are available and introduces the MPLS-TP equipment of ETRI.