Highly Reliable and Large-Capacity Packet Transport Networks: Technologies, Perspectives, and Standardization

With the recent prevalence of Internet protocol-based services, packet traffic is rapidly becoming the mainstream of data traffic. This has increased the demand for transport network technology that can efficiently accommodate the large capacity of both packet-based and circuit-based traffic while achieving high reliability, sufficient operation, and maintenance capability comparable to that of traditional transport networks such as synchronous digital hierarchy or optical transport networks. This study gives an overview of packet transport technologies including Ethernet and multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), and provides details of MPLS-TP (transport profile), recently developed as a promising next-generation packet transport technology. Its standardization in International Telecommunication Union, Telecommunication Standardization Sector and Internet Engineering Task Force is also described. Then, further perspectives are given on MPLS-TP applications including layer convergence of transport networks for cost-effective and simple operation.