MPLS not until the last mile

fahim · ‎02-15-2008

We signed for an MPLS link with our ISP. The ISP does indeed provide us with an MPLS link but what comes into our premises is a cable attached to Modem, terminating finally on a serial interface of a router. The technology that's provided to us at the last mile is definitely not MPLS this way but is either SDSL or HDSL.

The ISP maintains that because our office is located far away from the city, our connection to a remote office in UK up until the main city is MPLS and from the city to the last mile is S/H DSL giving us all the benefits that can be derived from MPLS.

Is there contention right? What are we losing in this scenario?

yagnesh_tel · ‎02-15-2008

You can think MPLS as backbone technology used by service providers to integrate, or converge, their disparate networks. In most cases customers don't require to configure any MPLS configuration at their sites. In other word customer may not even come to know that their data is carried through MPLS backbone of ISP. Although last mile connectivity through DSL may hit performance in your case. So I guess this should answer your question.

Joseph W. Doherty · ‎02-16-2008

Agree with the prior poster, unless you're extending MPLS within your LAN, shouldn't matter much what the last mile link technology is.

As to running across MPLS, a couple of advantages that should be supported, whether you can use ToS and obtain different levels of service, especially useful for egree on the far side of MPLS, and whether you can easily do full mesh routing.