Customer-oriented GMPLS service management and resilience differentiation

Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) is currently under standardization at the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It basically reuses the MPLS control plane (IP routing and signaling) for various technologies such as fiber switching, DWDM, SONET, and packet MPLS. In this article, we propose a management architecture, which allows a service provider to offer customers various services based on a GMPLS infrastructure. The business model behind the architecture is comparable to the online flight ticket sales systems known.