Simplify your IP network with Centralized Segment Routing, part of Ciena’s Adaptive IP

This increase is putting more pressure on the connectivity of IP as well as protocols that “tie” the Internet together.

Currently, the technology chosen by carriers in the design and deployment of MPLS traffic engineering networks is to use RSVP-TE.

However, the Label Distribution Protocol (LDP), especially the RSVP-TE, is complex protocols that can be deployed, maintained, operated, or handled when a problem occurs. These protocols generate a lot of signaling traffic in the network, contain little information about the network topology (network architecture), and flood the network with large numbers of MPLS tunnels.

Therefore, operators need a lot of highly skilled human resources to support the deployment of the RSVP-TE network architecture. However, the scaling of RSVP-TE networks can quickly become overwhelming!

Segment Routing (SR) is a flexible and scalable technology for IP routing deployment. Each source will select a link and put the information directly on the top of the packet as an ordered list of links. A link in Segmental Routing is not dependent on a hop-by-hop platform signal, Label Distribution Protocol (LDP), or RSVP; instead, this link uses “segments” for transitions. In general, this segmentation makes owning and operating the network much simpler.

SR can also perform over MPLS or IPv6 data layer, and it integrates with MPLS’s multi-service capabilities, including Layer 3 VPN (L3VPN) and VPN Ethernet (EVPN).

Ciena’s Adaptive IP provides a perfect architecture for developing a network system into an efficient, simple, scalable and highly economical architecture using SR.

Using SR to upgrade an IP network becomes simpler and more efficient does not lie in owning a network infrastructure that already has an SR or enabled SR in a traditional IP infrastructure. This requires a well-defined and widely-proven strategy for deploying an automated intelligent platform. This requires Ciena’s Adapt features in:

  • Open a parsable infrastructure with the ability to provide real-time telemetry, using open standards such as gRPC, OpenConfig and BGP-LS. Ciena’s platforms, such as 5162, 5170, 6500-T and 6500PTS, are excellent examples of solutions that combine scalability, performance, capacity, and a streamlined IP protocol stack in one form formula is optimized.

Analyzes with the ability to understand multi-vendor and multilayer networks, perform network investigation, learn network topology, leverage network resources in real time, require QoS, and act as a SR Transmission Computation (PCE) Components. Blue Planet Routing Assurance and Optimization (ROA) is the perfect set of tools to support any form of SR deployment.

Multi-domain and multi-vendor SDN management with PCE-based network infrastructure automation and programming, using standards such as NETCONF / YANG to implement Segmental Routing policies. Blue Planet Multi-Domain Service Management (MDSO) provides the SDN capabilities needed to efficiently deploy Segment Routing.

The benefits of Segmental Routing can be seen quite clearly when compared with traditional IP, LDP, and RSVP-TE Routing implementations. SR has great potential to be the primary IP network architecture supporting use cases such as preparation for 5G mobile network deployment.

Several important points to note when discussing the use of SR:

  • The development of IP networks is not an ideal solution. The majority of the platforms currently deployed are not SR compatible. Therefore, any action needs to be able to support a multi-tech environment.
  •  The only way to help systems increase resilience, save costs and be useful in the future is to use open mindset and relevant solutions available in the market. All components in an SR implementation should support a multi-vendor environment.

Finally, SR is not a block-based implementation. Its effectiveness depends heavily on having an intelligent automated software platform that is compatible with the most advanced methods in the industry, and having a clear development strategy.

Operators using IP / MPLS networks need to have the capacity to develop their existing network infrastructure, to support new services and the development of IP networks without increasing. complexity and has a negative effect on Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Ciena’s Adaptive IP is the perfect platform to successfully deploy Segment Routing.