The boom of Internet and Virtual Private Networks has dramatically increased the data traffic, requiring a boost of optical networks capacity. At the same time, Telecom carriers and service providers are looking for more cost efficient solutions for their core optical networks. This trend has lead equipment manufacturers and operators to identify new requirements for these networks, including traffic engineering, fast and on demand optical path provisioning.

ITU-T built the Automatic Switched Transport Networks (ASTN) architecture defined as a control plane and its interfaces (UNI, I-NNI, E-NNI).
IETF proposed GMPLS as a way to implement this control plane, by specifying enhancements to Routing protocols (IS-IS or OSPF) and Signaling Protocols (CR-LDP or RSVP-TE). OIF has defined GMPLS extensions to provide the O-UNI and E-NNI.


MARBEN™ Products and GMPLS

The GMPLS market is emerging and still moving. With MARBEN™ GMPLS Solution, MARBEN™ Products remains a leading supplier of networking protocols for control plane by providing a software solution that preserves customer investment and evolves with current states of Standards.

MARBEN™ Products developed its solution within thess past five years with inputs and support of its customers among major optical manufacturers. We have also been active in the standardization process of the first work on GMPLS.

MARBEN™ Products participated in 2002 with Alcatel Bell, Alcatel CIT, CTTC, IMEC and Telefonica I+D to a first major European R&D project dedicated to transparent optical communication: the Tbones project. This project is an ITEA project that lies within the EUREKA framework. MARBEN™ Products brings its skills in network control and management software to this project that aims at designing and implementing a simulator for scalable, multi-granularity switching capable, and transparent DWDM backbone optical networks, which operate a decentralized GMPLS control plane as well as an accommodated management plane.

MARBEN™ GMPLS Suite is outstanding in our field for a while and keeps proving its reliability and its interoperability.

More recently, we unveiled the MARBEN™ GMPLS E-NNI routing and signaling availability

We are getting gaining ground thanks to our long experience in optical network and the straight implementation of the standards.