RFC 3294 (rfc3294) - Page 1 of 9

General Switch Management Protocol (GSMP) Applicability

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Network Working Group                                           A. Doria
Request for Comments: 3294                Lulea University of Technology
Category: Informational                                       K. Sundell
                                                         Nortel Networks
                                                               June 2002


        General Switch Management Protocol (GSMP) Applicability

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 (2002).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   This memo provides an overview of the GSMP (General Switch Management
   Protocol) and includes information relating to its deployment in a IP
   network in an MPLS environment.  It does not discuss deployment in an
   ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) network or in a raw ethernet
   configuration.

1. Overview

   The General Switch Management Protocol (GSMP) has been available to
   the IETF community for several years now as informational RFCs.  Both
   GSMPv1.1 (released in March 1996 as RFC 1987 [2]) and GSMPv2.0
   (released in August 1998 as RFC 2297 [3]) are available.  Several
   vendors have implemented GSMPv1.1.

   In V1.1 and V2 GSMP was intended only for use with ATM switches.
   During the course of the last two years, the GSMP working group has
   decided to expand the purview of GSMP to the point where it can be
   used to control a number of different kinds of switch and can thus
   live up to what its name indicates; a general switch management
   protocol.  To do this, commands and arguments needed to be
   generalised and sections needed to be added, discussing the manner in
   which the generalised protocol could be applied to specific kinds of
   switches and port types.  In short, the protocol has gone through
   major changes in the last 24 months.






Doria & Sundell              Informational
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