| Selecting MPLS VPN Services addresses the following major objectives: Empowers network designers and engineers to investigate the options and benefits of IP/MPLS VPN migration. Provides enterprise network engineers with an objective framework for evaluating competing IP/MPLS VPN service offerings. Covers the business rationale for implementing IP/MPLS VPNs. Includes detailed configuration examples showing the steps necessary for full IP/MPLS VPN operation. Presents detailed case studies illustrating key migration issues.
Major service providers worldwide are ramping up VPNs over IP. Since 2002, migrating from Layer 2 connections to Layer 3 IP MPLS/VPNs is the fastest-growing service, indicating that IP MPLS/VPNs are the primary growth vehicle for service provider-to-enterprise connections. IP MPLS/VPNs are attractive to both parties. For enterprises, they enable right-sourcing of WAN services and yield generous operational cost savings. For service providers, they offer a higher level of service to customers and lower costs for service deployment. With migration come challenges, however. Enterprises must understand key migration issues, what the realistic benefits are, and how to optimize new services. Providers must know what aspects of their services give value to enterprises and how they can provide the best value to customers. This book helps enterprise network engineers analyze migration options, anticipate migration issues, and properly deploy IP/MPLS VPNs. Detailed configurations illustrate effective deployment, and case studies present migration options and walk you through selecting the best option for the sample network. Part I addresses the business case for moving to an IP/MPLS VPN network, with a chapter devoted to the business and technical issues that you should review when evaluating IP MPLS/VPN offerings from major providers. Part II includes detailed deployment guidelines for the technologies used in the IP/MPLS VPN. Who Should Read This Book? The primary audience for this book includes networking professionals at service providers and enterprises, including network engineers, architects, and designers; technical managers; and technical consultants. This book assumes that you have a basic understanding of IP routing, IGP and BGP operations, and Layer 3 VPN technology, such as MPLS. How This Book Is Organized This book draws from the authors' direct experience with migrating the Cisco internal WAN from Frame Relay and ATM connectivity to a provider-provisioned MPLS VPN. It is organized as follows: Chapter 1, "Assessing Enterprise Legacy WANs and IP/VPN Migration" Analyzes strengths and weaknesses of time-division multiplexing (TDM) and Layer 2 WAN services for use by enterprises and makes the business case for IP/VPNs. Chapter 2, "Assessing Service Provider WAN Offerings" Defines the primary business and technical issues to address when evaluating IP and MPLS VPN offerings from major providers. Chapter 3, "Analyzing Service Requirements" Clearly articulates the needs of the VPN service delivered by the provider to make the migration from Layer 2 to Layer 3 service valuable to the enterprise. Chapter 4, "IP Routing with IP/MPLS VPNs" Describes the IP/VPN's addressing, routing, load balancing, convergence, and IP services capabilities. This chapter shows architectural needs with respect to the addressing mechanisms needed and expands this through the routing requirements. Chapter 5, "Implementing Quality of Service" The need for quality of service (QoS) is a reality in today's real-time networks, where you seek to operate voice, video, and data. The aim is to provide a usable enterprise QoS policy and implementation guidelines when deploying this over an IP/VPN service. This chapter also tells you what to ask of the service provider. Chapter 6, "Multicast in an MPLS VPN" IP Multicast is an essential service to deliver scalable e-learning, live executive broadcasts, media messaging, and high-quality corporate communications while using the network efficiently. With the introduction of IP/VPNs, you must consider IP Multicast needs in this environment. Ensuring transparency is key to the enterprise's achieving scalable support for multicast services. Chapter 7, "Enterprise Security in an MPLS VPN Environment" Describes the benefits and drawbacks of implementing various security mechanisms at different locations within the network from the perspective of the enterprise and service provider. Chapter 8, "MPLS VPN Network Management" Service provider monitoring and reporting are key to ensuring that the services employed by the enterprise are used properly. You also must plan for the future, resolve service issues, and receive timely support for the enterprise infrastructure. Chapter 9, "Off-Net Access to the VPN" Defines the options and technical implementation for the various means to provide remote access, Internet access, and extranet connectivity to the VPN-supported intranet. Chapter 10, "Migration Strategies" Provides a clear and concise set of steps to undertake the correct planning and execution of a network migration from the existing ATM/Frame Relay/leased-line network to an IP/VPN. Appendix A, "Questions to Ask Your Provider Regarding Layer 3 IP/MPLS VPN Capability" Provides a checklist and Request for Proposal (RFP) template for enterprises to use with providers.
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