This presentation presents the relevant IETF Pseudo-wire Edge-to-Edge Emulation (PWE3) Working Group's most recent efforts in the area of pseudo-wire OAM standardization, as well as some insight into the future direction of new standards. The discussion will touch on Label Switch Router (LSR) self test features and "Bidirectional Forwarding Detection", a new lightweight protocol for detecting link point to point link outages, including PWE3 VCs.

George Swallow is the Co-Chair of the IETF's Working Group on Multiprotocol over Label Switching. He is a Distinguished Engineer at Cisco Systems where he is a member of the architecture team for Label Switching. He is responsible for applying MPLS to the problem of traffic engineering and fast reroute. Lately he has also been involved in generalizing MPLS for optical and other technologies.

Prior to Cisco, Mr. Swallow was employed by BBN. There he was involved in the design, deployment, and analysis of over 50 operational networks, including the Arpanet. This work involved extensive statistical measurement and analysis to investigate both network and protocol behavior. He was also involved in the design of packet and ATM switches. While at BBN he held a number of positions ranging from Senior Network Analyst to Director of Network Engineering.

He has been participating in the design and standardization of Internet & ATM standards since 1991. He chaired the MPOA Working Group at the ATM Forum and Co-chaired the ION Working Group at the IETF.

Mr. Swallow holds a MS in Mathematics from Northeastern University and a BA in Mathematics from the University of Virginia.