Impact of topology on layer 2 switched QoS sensitive services

High-bandwidth QoS sensitive services such as large scale video surveillance generally depend on provisioned capacity delivered by circuit-switched technology such as SONET/SDH. Yet development in layer 2 protocol sets and manageability extensions to Ethernet standards propose layer 2 packet switching technology as a viable, cheaper alternative to SONET/SDH. Layer 2 switched networks traditionally offer more complex topologies; in this paper we explain general QoS issues with layer 2 switching and show the impact of topology choice on service performance

Emulation of GMPLS-controlled ethernet label switching

Last decades bridged Ethernet has been the de facto standard layer 2 technology for LAN environments. This is mainly because it is easy to deploy, it has low cost and is relatively robust. These attractive properties together with highly increasing PHY speeds result in several initiatives of research projects and standardization bodies to extend Ethernet such as to use the technology in carrier environments. However these Carrier Ethernet solutions are difficult to test with given simulation tools. This paper presents an emulation platform based on open-source software that allows to evaluate a Carrier Ethernet variant called Ethernet Label Switching (ELS). The platform allows various topology setups and has the possibility to perform time and performance benchmarking and traffic generation using standard Linux software. We will present the architecture of the emulation framework and show promising results in base setups