RE: MPLS,IETF, etc..

> From: Bob Braden [mailto:braden(_at_)ISI(_dot_)EDU]
> Sent: Saturday, September 01, 2001 1:29 PM
Hi Bob,

> Simplicity, in this case, seems to be in the eye of the beholder.
There is certainly some universal truth in that statement.

> I don't get why label swapping is any simpler than hop/hop forwarding.
It's simpler, IMHO, because it accomplishes more and does so in
a way that is globally beneficial.

That is, MPLS (in its fundamental goals) goes a long way toward
integrating L3 and L2 in a way that leverages the strengths and
discounts the weaknesses of the two paradigms:

   L3/routing/packet/connectionless
   L2/switching/circuit/connection-oriented

The concept of scaling hop/hop forwarding via more capable hardware
has its benefits (mostly of the short-term economic variety...which
can be quite powerful, I agree), but is in the long run (I believe)
inferior (in terms of scalability and synthesis, at least) to a more
fundamental architecture/software solution.

Thanks,

BobN