RFC 2430 (rfc2430) - Page 1 of 16


A Provider Architecture for Differentiated Services and Traffic Engineering (PASTE)



Alternative Format: Original Text Document



Network Working Group                                              T. Li
Request for Comments: 2430                              Juniper Networks
Category: Informational                                       Y. Rekhter
                                                           Cisco Systems
                                                            October 1998


                      A Provider Architecture for
            Differentiated Services and Traffic Engineering
                                (PASTE)

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998).  All Rights Reserved.

1.0 Abstract

   This document describes the Provider Architecture for Differentiated
   Services and Traffic Engineering (PASTE) for Internet Service
   Providers (ISPs).  Providing differentiated services in ISPs is a
   challenge because the scaling problems presented by the sheer number
   of flows present in large ISPs makes the cost of maintaining per-flow
   state unacceptable.  Coupled with this, large ISPs need the ability
   to perform traffic engineering by directing aggregated flows of
   traffic along specific paths.

   PASTE addresses these issues by using Multiprotocol Label Switching
   (MPLS) [1] and the Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) [2] to create
   a scalable traffic management architecture that supports
   differentiated services.  This document assumes that the reader has
   at least some familiarity with both of these technologies.

2.0 Terminology

   In common usage, a packet flow, or a flow, refers to a unidirectional
   stream of packets, distributed over time.  Typically a flow has very
   fine granularity and reflects a single interchange between hosts,
   such as a TCP connection.  An aggregated flow is a number of flows
   that share forwarding state and a single resource reservation along a
   sequence of routers.





Li & Rekhter                 Informational