The Essentials of ASON /GMPLS

Faisal Khan Senior Engr. Planning Nov. 11, 2009

Topics
1. Motivation for Optical Control Plane 2. Peer Model Versus Overlay Model 3. Standard bodies for ASON/GMPLS 4. ASON Reference Interfaces 5. ASON Connection Types 6. ASON/GMPLS Standards Overview

MOTIVATION FOR OPTICAL CONTROL PLANE

Ultimate Goal for Optical Control initiatives is to have a single control plane for both IP/MPLS network and Circuit switched network which is better for network manageability. Optical Control helps network in the following functions 1. Provisioning ( e.g. dynamic provisioning on demand) 2. Restorability (e.g. sharing protection resources for efficient utilization of resources ) 3.Manageability ( e.g End to End management of all kinds of traffic)

TYPES OF OPTICAL CONTROL PLANE

Peer Model ( Proposed by IETFs GMPLS )
One control Plane for all equipment in the network. The routing information is shared among the client and Transport equipment

Overlay Model ( Proposed by ITU-Ts ASON )

Optical control plane act as an overlay control plane with the existing control plane of the client equipment. Internal routing information is not shared with the external client equipment. The client control plane interfaces with the optical control plane through User Network Interface -UNI.

Client Equipment (Router, SDH node) Optical Transport Equipment ( optical switch, ROADM etc)

Pros and Cons Peer versus Overlay Model

Peer Model ( Proposed by IETFs GMPLS )
Pros: 1. Optical topology visible to client layer. 2. Better interoperability. 3. One addressing scheme for all network elements Con: 1. Optical layer becomes subservient to the client layer and loses control of the transport plane.

Overlay Model ( Proposed by ITU-Ts ASON )

Pros: 1. Optical layer keeps the control of the routing. Cons: 1. Two control planes. Interoperability issues. 2. Need to have dual addressing schemes for the client and optical control plane

Client Equipment (Router, SDH node) Optical Transport Equipment ( optical switch, ROADM etc)

STANDARD BODIES FOR GMPLS/ ASON

ITU-T has mainly focused on the requirements & Architecture of optical control plane IETF has mainly focused on the development of the GMPLS protocol itself. OIF has focused on applying GMPLS protocols to ASON itself. (defining UNI, E-NNI etc) Note that ASON uses GMPLS protocols for connecting its building blocks.

GMPLS Peer Model Motives

The GMPLS peer model is an extension of the currently IP/MPLS mechanism for the IP networks by adapting it for optical networks that carry circuit switched traffic also. The biggest motivators for GMPLS Peer model are following.

1. Reduction of the number of switching layers.

IP/MPLS is the only control that will likely remain and is capable of controlling SDH traffic which is just a framing process. 2 . Re use of the IP addressing scheme IP addressing model for routers can be extended to Optical network elements too.

3. Re-Use of MPLS-TE Protocol suite. Signaling protocol such as Resource reservation protocol ( RSVP) and routing protocols such as OSPF/ISIS can be reused to control non IP technologies. 4. Extension of Label switching paradigm In MPLS, the incoming interface/ label pair is mapped to outgoing interface/label pair. In GMPLS, the incoming fiber/ wavelength pair is mapped to outgoing fiber/wavelength pair.

ASON Reference Interfaces

UNI : User Network Interface, reference point defines the boundary between a client and the network.

I-NNI: Internal Network to Network interface, is between the single vendor environment, so proprietary protocols can be used here.
E-NNI : External NNI is the administrative boundary between different vendors of the same network or interconnect with carriers. E-NNI is always standardized for multivendor operability,

IMPORTANT COMPONENTS OF THE ASON CONTROL PLANE

DISCOVERY & LINK MANAGEMENT: Discovery of the neighbors and links LMP ( Link Management Protocol ) is used here. ROUTING : link connectivity information is distributed to all nodes within a network through routing protocols. OSPF-TE is used at the E-NNI as mandatory by OIF-E-NNI-1.0 . However the I-NNI has been left to be a proprietary protocol e.g OSPF, IS-IS etc. PATH COMPUTATION: Used to plan a route based on service constraints e.g CSPF algorithm is used here SIGNALING: Used to setup, modify and tear down end to end services. RSVP-TE is used here.

ASON - Connection TYPES

The ITU-T defines three connection types. These connection types distinguish the distribution of the connection management functions between the management and control planes: Permanent Connection ( PC) : Management system establishes connection and no control plane is involved Switched Connection ( SC) : The customer requirement e.g. Router establishes connection using control plane signaling over the UNI interface. The end to end connection is established using control plane without involving management function Soft Permanent Connection ( SPC) involves both management and control plane. Over the UNI it is management , but within the network it is the control plane

Interface Permanent Switched Soft Perm.

Control Plane ( UNI, E-NNI) ( NNI )

Management Plane (E- UNI )

Client

UNI

E-NNI

Optical NE

Optical NE

Optical NE

Optical NE

Client

ASON / GMPLS Standards Overview

ITU-T ( ASON )
Requirements & Architecture Auto Discovery Link Managment G .7713 .1
DCM based on P-NNI

IETF ( GMPLS )
RFC 3945
GMPLS Signaling Description

TMF
TMF 509
Network Connectivity Model

G.8080
ASON Architecture & Requirments

G. 7714
Generalized Auto Discovery

G. 7714. 1
Auto Discovery in SDH /OTN networks

RFC 4204
Link Management Protcol ( LMP)

RFC 4207
SONET/SDH encoding for LMP

OIF
RFC 3471
GMPLS Signaling Description

RFC 3473
Resource reservation Protocol( RSVP-TE)

ENNI-1.0
External Network to Network Intercace

ENNI-2.0
External Network to Network Intercace

Signaling

G. 7713
Discributed Call & Connc . Man agent ( DCM)

G .7713 .2
DCM based on RSVP-TE

RFC 4606
GMPLS extensions for SONET/SDH

RFC 4208
RSVP-TE extensions For Overlay model

UNI- 1.0
User to Network Interface

UNI- 2.0
User to Network Interface

G .7713 .3
DCM based on CR-LDP

G .7715 .1 Routing G.7715

ASON Routing Archit. & Reqmts Link State Protocols

RFC 4202
Routing for GMPLS

RFC 4203
OSPF extension for GMPLS

ENNI-OSPF 1.0
OSPF based routing

G .7715 .2
Remote Route Query

DCN

G. 7712
DCN Architecture

TMF
Management

G .7718
ASON Managment

G. 7718. 1
Protocol Neutral Managment Model

GMPLS MIB
RFCs

TMF 814
Muti Technology Network Mgmnt .

MTOSI
Multi Technology System interface