Network Working Group D. Awduche Request for Comments: 2702 J. Malcolm Category: Informational J. Agogbua M. O'Dell J. McManus UUNET (MCI Worldcom) September 1999 Requirements for Traffic Engineering Over MPLS 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 (1999). All Rights Reserved. Abstract This document presents a set of requirements for Traffic Engineering over Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS). It identifies the functional capabilities required to implement policies that facilitate efficient and reliable network operations in an MPLS domain. These capabilities can be used to optimize the utilization of network resources and to enhance traffic oriented performance characteristics. Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction ............................................. 2 1.1 Terminology .............................................. 3 1.2 Document Organization .................................... 3 2.0 Traffic Engineering ...................................... 4 2.1 Traffic Engineering Performance Objectives ............... 4 2.2 Traffic and Resource Control ............................. 6 2.3 Limitations of Current IGP Control Mechanisms ............ 6 3.0 MPLS and Traffic Engineering ............................. 7 3.1 Induced MPLS Graph ....................................... 9 3.2 The Fundamental Problem of Traffic Engineering Over MPLS . 9 4.0 Augmented Capabilities for Traffic Engineering Over MPLS . 10 5.0 Traffic Trunk Attributes and Characteristics ........... 10 5.1 Bidirectional Traffic Trunks ............................. 11 5.2 Basic Operations on Traffic Trunks ....................... 12 5.3 Accounting and Performance Monitoring .................... 12 Awduche, et al. Informational