soooo...Label switching assigns labels to packet headers which results in
less time and processing looking up routes, and instead relies upon a label
index for forwarding decisions? Hence my statement "faster switching/routing
and less processing"
Marc
I still have to disagree that MPLS results in faster switching/routing in
modern service provider networks. Modern vendor caching mechanisms are just
as fast if not faster than MPLS processing. With the small overhead of MPLS
labels and LDP I highly doubt that you're getting any performance increase
over Cisco's CEF or Juniper's FPC architecture. I also doubt that speed is
a benefit that service providers consider when deciding whether or not they
want to implement MPLS. Added services that run on top of MPLS like VPNs,
traffic engineering, and fast rerouting capabilities (all mentioned in the
original post) are more likely the benefits considered. Perhaps when label
switching was first being marketed (Ipsilon and Cisco in 1996) there were
some speed benefits but now I think it's the services that use MPLS that are
the major benefit.
-Michael Cohen