GMPLS operations and management: today's challenges and solutions for tomorrow

This article examines the technical challenges involved in the delivery of GMPLS, and in particular the challenges in managing these networks. This article focuses first on requirements gathered from customers who are deploying GMPLS in their networks, or will be doing so in the near future. The motivations for these requirements are often based on a service provider's next-generation network designs that are motivated primarily by network convergence, and the promised operational and capital expense reductions and architectural simplifications over existing segregated network designs. This article then considers various solution options to manage GMPLS networks based on these requirements. The key areas examined include provisioning/configuration, performance monitoring and operations and management, and tools that can be used for these purposes. We conclude with a recap of standardization issues and opportunities.