Re: MPLS vs. Point-to-Point

bfree · ‎06-20-2006

My company is preparing to move from our Frame-Relay to MPLS, but while obtaining competitive quotes I've found that Point-to-Point is actually cheaper than MPLS. I've talked to three different carriers (Sprint, XO and ELI) and all show about the same rate and can't give me a real compelling reason to not consider Point-to-Point. Just curious if any of you have ideas why MPLS should be considered? Thanks in advance.

fmzelayaf · ‎06-20-2006

Actually it may depend on the size of your desired links, for example a 512K or a T1 link should have no bigger difference in cost, but as you move to bigger links it starts to get more interesting, for example if you need a 5M Link you would need 3 to 4 T1 FR links, and the boundling of those links could be troublesome, but with MPLS you get only one interface for all that bandwidth.

mheusinger · ‎06-21-2006

Hi,

any WAN technology might be good enough - it depends on your requirements. What does an MPLS VPN give you over FR?

1) any-to-any connectivity

This might be not an issue for your data applications, but f.e. VoIP crossing two times the PVCs might add an unacceptable delay.

2) variety of connection options (PPP, FR, ATM, Eth, GE, IPSec, POS, ...) and higher bandwidths up to 10 GE

3) QoS

MPLS uses 3 Bits, just like IP precedence. so you can get a consistent end-to-end treatment of your priority traffic. A FR switch handling your data does not know anything about different classes, thus could drop your important traffic during congestion (They all do overbook don?t they?)

Hope this helps! Please rate all posts.

Regards, Martin

olorunloba · ‎06-21-2006

Martin, very good points. However, not all SPs configure their MPLS network optimally to deliver all the services you have mentioned. I will advice the original poster to juggle the providers together. Ask the MPLS provider, why you should go for MPLS and not a point-to-point. Also ask the PtP guy the same thing. This way you can compare both service (and not actually the technology).

If they give you points that you seem not clear about, come and post it here at the forum for clarification.

mheusinger · ‎06-22-2006

Hi,

you are right in that there are many more arguments than only technological ones. And with every SP there is a difference between technology and product. The latter can be restricted because of operational issues, cost, knowledge (or lack of it ;-), etc.

Technology should be among the arguments for or against a solution, but it is definately not the only one when it comes to design a production network.

(First three are: 1) cost 2) cost 3) cost ;-)

Regards, Martin

bfree · ‎06-22-2006

Sprint and XO can both provide both types of services. In both cases the dedicated point-to-point is cheaper than MPLS. The advantages in service from MPLS as advertised by the SPs are:

1. for a fee you can also get Internet service from the MPLS (we don't need that).

2. for a fee clients can connect using VPN to the MPLS (we already have that capability).

3. MPLS from both providers has 4 classes of service for prioritization of traffic. (great, but we can do that with our own routers on a dedicated circuit).

The disadvantages they claim to dedicated service is that it has little redundancy since it doesn't use a cloud technology such as FR or MPLS. Our FR has proved over the last six months that is has little redundancy however, and all of these technologies have various single points of failure (local loop). I'm starting to think the real disadvantage is that they make less money. ;-)

My main point in posing this question to the forum was to see if there were any glaring reasons I should steer away from point-to-point. I appreciate the responses and I think you have helped convince me that point-to-point is the solution for us.

olorunloba · ‎06-22-2006

Hmm, funny that you are getting convinced not to use MPLS on an MPLS forum.

mheusinger · ‎06-23-2006

Hi,

The reason is: we are technology oriented and not from Marketing or Sales ;-)

Cheers, Martin

bfree · ‎06-23-2006

Absolutely agree. I don't think anyone was knocking MPLS, and if it's features or services are what you need then great, but in my case they are not. The reason I posted this question to the forum was for the exact reason mheusinger points out. I knew I would get answers that were not swayed by how much money some telco was going to make.