Subject: MPLS PID: A proposal

From: "Ron Cohen" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2003 12:51:14 +0200

It seems that:

1. There is a need for protocol identification over MPLS for some
applications.

2. The MPLS PID issue should be investigated in MPLS WG to arrive at a
general solution.

My proposal is to add an optional word (4 bytes) that would be added to
PW over MPLS flows. The content of this word would be left for MPLS WG
to define. In order not to tie together the advance of the PWE3 WG to
the MPLS one, I suggest that we treat it as an opaque word. The sender
would add an opaque word, and the receiver would be configured to skip
this word. 

In MPLS environment where protocol identification is needed, the opaque
word will be used within the encapsulation. In environment where there
is no need for this feature, the opaque word would not be used.

The requirement we put forward to the MPLS WG are:

1. Size: 4 bytes

2. identification of non IPv4/IPv6 in first four bits.

3. Applications can treat it as opaque object (i.e., no mandatory
non-fixed value fields).

Ron

Ron Cohen
CTO
Lycium Networks
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