BUSINESS WIRE

October 15, 2004; McLean, Virginia

Isocore today announced the successful completion of advanced networking features in IP/MPLS and GMPLS. The comprehensive testing took place during the weeks of September 27 and October 4 at the Isocore facilities in Northern Virginia.

The fall leading-edge code testing focused primarily on testing the features that would help Carriers and Service Providers enhance their MPLS-enabled networks using DS-TE and increase availability of their existing network infrastructure.

As the current IETF DS-TE draft does not define the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) and Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP)-TE code points, and they are yet to be specified by IANA, interim codes were defined in the test plans developed jointly by Isocore Internetworking Lab members. To meet the most important requirement for the next generation networks, Isocore for the first time included the evaluation of the high availability techniques using IETF defined graceful restart procedures for BGP and LDP. These features were tested within the context of Layer 3 VPNs and Layer 2 P2P services. During this test coexistence of protocol extensions based on graceful restart techniques and stateful failover techniques were also examined. The testing also focused on the deployment scenarios such as the interworking of Layer 3 inter-provider VPNs and Virtual Private LAN Services (VPLS) using BGP route-reflectors in the core IP network to evaluate the layer 3 VPNs scalability.

Isocore as part of this testing continues to demonstrate the leadership in the MPLS to GMPLS migration strategies evaluation program and tested for the first time hierarchical LSPs. These LSPs were used to multiple IP based services including high definition video. As part of the GMPLS control plane test effort full constraint shortest path (CSPF) algorithms were evaluated where dynamic GMPLS label switch paths were established with no statically configured hops and multiple parallel paths. Several deployment scenarios including GMPLS-OIF UNI interworking were also tested. These scenarios help Tier 1 carrier's to evaluate the options available to separate their IP-based network database with the optical domain. All the test were conducted with support of NTT, Japan whose on-site participation and contribution in the test plans development helped in the success of the recently concluded leading edge code testing.

"GMPLS-based IP optical network control mechanism will be a key technology to handle tremendous traffic growth, to be witnessed within a few years. The migration strategy from MPLS to GMPLS networks is important for the service providers/carriers, which have already deployed MPLS-based service-converged networks. I expect that the initial test at the Isocore leading-edge code testing event this autumn should promote the maturity and the interoperability of the MPLS/GMPLS migration technology," said Tohru Matsunaga, Executive Manager, NTT Network Service Systems Laboratories, Tokyo, Japan.

Live demonstration of the results of these testing and other on-going efforts at Isocore Internetworking Lab will be showcased at MPLS 2004 public demo (www.mpls2004.com), on October 20, at Isocore headquarters in McLean, VA. The companies participating in the testing include Alcatel, Avici Systems, Chiaro Networks, Cisco Systems, Ciena, Extreme Networks, Fujitsu, Foundry Networks, Ixia, Juniper Networks, Marconi, Movaz Networks, MRV Communications, Navtel Communications, Quarry Technologies, Redback Networks, Spirent Communications, Sycamore Networks and Tellabs. NTT supported this effort.

Media Contact:
Vincent Dean (703) 556-4939 or vdean@isocore.com