CSE-MTECH-03-042




Policy Framework for MPLS Network
Renu Bhattar, M.Tech, 03, 81 pp.
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400 076.
Supervisor(s): Abhay Karandikar, G.Sivakumar

Real-Time traffic should maintain their timeliness else they lose their value and effectiveness. Guaranteeing Quality of Service (QoS) to such real-time applications with the current Internet is difficult as the Internet does not support service differentiation. It delivers only best-effort service. Providing a QoS requires the network to support admission control and service differentiation. Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) protocol is regarded as a technique for Traffic Engineering (TE) and QoS in IP networks as it can establish paths similar to ATM virtual circuits. Admission Control is based on administrative policies and resource availability. Resource-based Admission Control is a common element of QoS which is to prevent network overload by controlling the admitted traffic. Policy control is needed for authentication, authorizing and accounting of the resources and services. The Common Open Policy Service (COPS) protocol provides possibility of having administrative decisions to be enforced along with resource admission control. By extending the COPS protocol for MPLS environment, there is an opportunity to provide service guarantees and also ``graceful degradation'' in unfavorable conditions. This report proposes MPLS resource allocation model that relies on COPS for policy and resource control. It addresses the need for having a policy control mechanism in MPLS networks and then gives the framework of the MPLS policy model. It defines the protocol objects along with the operational details. {\bf Keywords:} COPS-MPLS, Constrained-based Routing, Policy Management Model, Traffic Engineering Quality of Service, Admission Control