Self-Healing Multipoint-to-Point Label Switched Paths

Multi-protocol label switching since its conception has had the notion of multipoint to point (MP2P) LSPs; however in its early years of development and adoption by service providers the onus has been on supporting point to point (P2P) LSPs. Whilst this type of deployment provides a flexible forwarding framework for traffic engineering within data networks, in many cases it is not the most efficient way of utilising the rich feature set that MPLS affords as a technology. MP2P LSPs offer a traffic engineering opportunity that is increasingly important as MPLS deployment becomes widespread. Label space reduction is the obvious benefit of an MP2P configuration but there are other benefits that can be derived from the technology used to realize MP2P LSPs. In this context, DAM (dynamically adaptive multipoint to point), a novel protocol for the formation and maintenance of MP2P LSPs is presented