Point-to-Multipoint GMPLS

Generalized multiprotocol label switching (GMPLS) is a very young and rapidly growing technology. Users and providers of transport services and vendors of transport network equipment and management systems watch all areas of the development of GMPLS very closely. Features, applications, frameworks and architectural solutions, protocol standards, inter-operability events, and scientific and marketing research contribute to the rapid forward motion of GMPLS. The enthusiasm with which new directions are developed within GMPLS and the importance placed on these developments by the service providers and equipment vendors arise because of the potential revenues and services that the technology promises to deliver if it is successful. This chapter discusses an example of such an application—GMPLS point-to-multipoint traffic engineering that very heavily relies on the concepts, principles, solutions, and techniques described in the previous chapters.