Why Must MPLS and LTE Be Tested?
It is clearly imperative that MPLS-based networks, on which virtually all of a carrier’s services implicitly or explicitly increasingly depend, must be extremely robust. Because so much depends on the proper operation of a carrier’s underlying MPLS infrastructure, failure is not an option! MPLS is clearly fundamental to modern packet-based network services. But LTE and MPLS’ flexibility is derived from a high degree of complexity: • set up and tear down label-switched paths • detect and manage neighbor relationships among label-switching routers • set up traffic handling rules (QoS, clocking, etc.) • manage flows of data, especially considering committed/contracted performance • manage all the interactions between label-switching routers (failover, protection switching, discovery, etc.) • interactions with routing protocols As in other networking technologies, complexity creates weaknesses that can cause downtime or customer support incidents. Complexity is the enemy of reliability, av
