Event Details

Virtual Private Networks - Progress and Issues

Presenter: Dr. Sudhakar Ganti - Tropic Networks Inc., Ottawa, Canada
Supervisor: Dr. J. Muzio, Acting Chair, Department of Computer Science

Date: Thu, July 24, 2003
Time: 13:30:00 - 14:30:00
Place: Engineering Office Wing (EOW) Room # 430

ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT:

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is an emulation of a private network facility using a public network infrastructure. VPNs have come a long way from using expensive circuit switched networks for connectivity to using virtual circuit ATM networks and more recently towards packet based virtual routers for the IP networks. Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) based networks, like ATM networks, bring true multi-service capability to packet based networks and provide virtually any transport capability.

This talk's focus is on the latest developments in MPLS based VPNs and more specifically onVirtual Private LAN Service (VPLS). VPLS connects the geographically dispersed locations with a single bridged domain using MPLS Label Switched Paths (LSPs). For these networks, we will look at the service models, some of the mechanisms developed to provide end-to-end Quality-of-Service (QoS), path setup and resiliency, and constraint based routing, as well ashighlight some of the network and equipment design issues.

The subject of VPNs spans Computer Science, Communications and System Engineering. Finding an optimal solution for constraint based routing is a computationally complex problem of interest to Computer Science. New trends in equipment design use multi-core engines called Network Processors (NPs) for packet processing. Packet and processor scheduling algorithms to achieve wire-rate performance with multi-field classification is another area of interest to Computer Science. Resource management for QoS, creation and management of VPNs, membership discovery, and protocol development are a challenge to communication and system engineering areas.

Note: Dr. Sudhakar Ganti is a candidate for a faculty position in the Department of Computer Science.