A performance analysis of BGP/MPLS VPN failover functionality

Abstract

Future military systems, many of which have unique timing requirements, will rely on the Global Information Grid (GIG) as the core data communication infrastructure. The GIG currently uses the BGP/MPLS VPN technology to provide secure and robust IP-level connectivity. This technology supports the provisioning of IP connectivity by a service provider to multiple customers over a common physical IP backbone while allowing complete logical separation of customer traffic and routing information. This research focuses on evaluating and validating the performance characteristic of BGP/MPLS VPN to determine if the use of this technology can provide the necessary performance guarantees required by military applications. A set of experiments have been performed to identify the key factors that affect the time delay of a network failure and recovery. The results show that reducing the ISIS SPF interval and TDP Hello interval could shorten the failover latency while decreasing the ISIS SPF interval and TDP Hello interval could reduce the restoration delay, hence improving the BGP/MPLS VPN failover functionality.