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MPLS Considered Helpful. Bruce Davie bsd@cisco.com. I’m not bitter. MPLS. Widely believed to stand for “Multiprotocol Label Switching” Would it have been more popular if “IP switching” were not already taken? But in reality MPLS is short for “Minneapolis”. The Midwestern Grassy Knoll.
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MPLS Considered Helpful Bruce Daviebsd@cisco.com
MPLS • Widely believed to stand for “Multiprotocol Label Switching” • Would it have been more popular if “IP switching” were not already taken? • But in reality MPLS is short for “Minneapolis”
The Midwestern Grassy Knoll • As MPLS becomes more and more dominant in the IETF, the IETF keeps circling back to Minneapolis • Coincidence or conspiracy? You be the judge.
MPLS Books Published (p.a.) MPLS Working Groups MPLS Internet Drafts 12 Sigcomm Papers 6 MPLS Trends 1996 1997 1998 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
MPLS Books Published (p.a.) MPLS Working Groups MPLS Internet Drafts 12 0 Sigcomm Papers 6 MPLS Trends 1996 1997 1998 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
MPLS Benefits #1 & 2 • An intellectual honeypot for demonstrably inferior research • Simplication of Sigcomm Review process • If (title contains “MPLS”) then • strong_reject = true • else • review paper • Research on more advanced algorithms possible
The Shenker Experiment • Davie, B., and Shenker, S. The impact of steganography on service differentiation: a game-theoretic approach • Davie, B., and Shenker, S. Solving the major problems in routing, addressing, congestion and scaling using MPLS: a game-theoretic approach
MPLS Benefit 3: TTL hiding • Providers can hide the internal topology from pesky grad students • Moving from ATM to MPLS carries no “increased hop count penalty” • Ongoing research: TTL incrementing for IP
Appplication data (generic viagra advert) Transport Header IP Header (optional) MPLS label = 01100110001101100101 L2 Header MPLS Benefit 4: Spam Protection • Need an IP address to receive spam • I’m rejecting all packets that have an IP header right above the L2 header • Here is my MPLS label – don’t tell the spammers
MPLS-based spam protection • MPLS labels are link-local in scope • If you tell my label to spammers, I can pick another one (new business card needed) • Research • How you ensure the right label is on your packets when they arrive at my link • Virtual business card distribution protocols