MPLS-BASED VPNs: Nudging out legacy networks

The biggest nightmare for any CIO or a corporate network manager is to
provide secure and reliable communication between various branches of a
corporate house and the mobile employees. Traditionally wide area networks have
been built on frame relay, ATM, or TDM technology. According to research
reports, though dialing in to the VPN remains the primary choice of
telecommuters across the world, more people are moving towards broadband access
of VPN.

MPLS promises to bring down cost, increase reliability and scalability, which
were often missing in legacy networks. Add to this lower latency, easier
provisioning, higher security and bandwidth, and MPLS makes an attractive
proposition for VPNs.

Managed Services

MPLS VPN reduces the complexity of the network by avoiding individual points at
each office unit. The customer needs to provide just the connection of the
office router to the edge router at the service provider's end. The MPLS
service provider takes care of the interconnections. All this can be classified
as Layer 3 service. However, if the customer wants Layer 2 or leased line like
services over MPLS, it can also be made available. For service providers like
Bharti, end-to-end connectivity and complete managed services have become the
selling point.

Attractive security features

MPLS is an IP based packet switch technology where data is converted into
packets and labeled for the requisite destination. On reaching the destination,
the label is identified and packet delivered. It gives the customers option of
selecting their encryption mode - public or private key - or solutions like
IPSec etc can also be incorporated on the networks.

Applications on MPLS VPNs

MPLS VPNs support any business grade application. It also provides flexibility
of diverting and routing traffic around link failures, and bottlenecks. It can
deliver data, voice and video services on the same network over multiple
locations. The biggest advantage is that MPLS enables cheaper, better and faster
data and video services as easily as it does for intra office voice calls.

Source: Bharti

Multicast applications like video conferencing or multimedia services save
time and money for enterprises. Voice over IP, Internet and e-mail services come
as bonus on these networks. Being a managed service where enterprises buy SLAs
and services, multi locations business like banks and dealer-company networks
can easily run ERP and work flow management applications.

MPLS VPNs can be accessed through public Internet too thus freeing it from
being location specific. For those on the move, MPLS creates a secure tunnel to
the organization's database for critical information, including product
catalogue, pricing and marketing material. All this helps in improving the
business process and makes transactions easier and faster.

In India, all the major telecom carriers offer MPLS VPN services. Bharti,
BSNL, VSNL, and Reliance have some MPLS-based IP VPN with the last mile access
over a broad range of access options, including dial-up, DSL, and cables etc.
Even MTNL has tied up with BSNL to offer its enterprise customers an all India
VPN service. With IP-based networks establishing their credibility in
performance and cost, more enterprises would evaluate MPLS VPNs for their
communication needs.

Anurag Prasad