Increasing Per-Customer MPLS VPN Visibility with Route Analytics
Putting the Layer 3 into Layer 3 MPLS VPN Management
by Packet Design
Published 2005, Posted February 2006

Abstract:

Layer 3 MPLS VPNs are a high growth component of most service provider WAN offerings today, and represent a major new revenue opportunity. Yet while service providers now enjoy a level of maturity in service delivery of RFC 2547bis MPLS VPNs, they suffer from immature MPLS VPN service management capabilities. Management systems have focused on traditional device-oriented connectivity and performance statistics, and are unable to provide the per-customer visibility needed to ensure customers' site-to-site IP reachability, VPN privacy and correct VPN routing policy. The lack of a Layer 3 management capability has significant operational impacts such as reducing service assurance and operational efficiency, and bottom-line impacts such as lost revenue when Service Level Agreements are not met and longer time to verified customer provisioning and revenue.

These key customer and operational concerns can be addressed by a new technology for IP Layer 3 network management called route analytics. This white paper examines the current operational state of MPLS VPN management, introduces IP route analytics technology and explains how route analytics for MPLS VPNs provides the missing Layer 3 management needed to help service providers maximize efficiency, productivity and profitability in their MPLS VPN service offerings.

Note that this paper also utilizes examples based on actual though anonymized MPLS VPN data from a Tier 1 Service Provider network.

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