GTEP: generalized traffic engineering protocol for multi-layer GMPLS networks

This paper proposes a generalized traffic engineering protocol (GTEP). GTEP is a protocol that permits communication between a constrained shortest path first (CSPF) engine and a generalized multi-protocol label switching (GMPLS) controller (CNTL). The latter is hosted by each GMPLS node; it handles GMPLS and MPLS protocols such as routing and signaling protocols as well as controlling the GMPLS node host. The CSPF engine provides multi-layer traffic engineering; it calculates label switched path (LSP) routes and judges whether a new lower-layer LSP should be established. GTEP functions are implemented in both the CSPF engine and GMPLS router. We demonstrate a multi-layer traffic engineering experiment conducted with GTEP.