MPLS vs PTP

Tue Jan 31 11:11:57 UTC 2006

At 10:32 AM -0800 1/30/06, Andrew Staples wrote:
>As we roll out a new network, on one of our links it is remarkably cheaper
>to run a T1 ptp vs. MPLS (running 66% data, 33% voice).  Based on comments
>received from this list (much thanks,  you know who you are) MPLS
>satisfaction seems to be determined by backbone noc competence, not the
>technology itself.  So back to price....if I consider layer1 issues to be
>equal in either scenario, and aggregation/meshing/hardware is not a real
>concern, it seems to me that a correctly configured, directly connected pipe
>would work as well as mpls, with the benefit of local control of my routers
>and owning any incompetence.

As long as you're referring to PTP with the voice packetized in some manner
(so as to effectively achieve dynamic bandwidth allocation which you can get
with multiple LSP's), then your tradeoff summary is on target.  If you are
looking at PTP TDM solution with fixed allocation, the PTP alternative wastes
any idle voice bandwidth which would otherwise be available for data.

/John