Performance Comparison of MPLS and ATM Based

Networks

Adnan Shakeel Ahmed, Md Omair Ahmad

{[email protected], [email protected]}

Department of CSE, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi.

Abstract. This paper represents the prime factors of MPLS over ATM method
and compares results of delay variations. In this paper we will see how the
MPLS will provide better results for media traffic over the ATM method. In
Computer Networks, MPLS contributes high scalability so we will briefly ana-
lyze the working methodology of MPLS system. MPLS helps in removing the
dependence on Layer 2 technology. Among all the challenges faced in the Net-
work industry traffic routing is one the most important, traffic routing and traf-
fic algorithm are equally important and need to be efficient. We also observe
that MPLS outperforms ATM in terms of delay and response time.

Keywords: MPLS, ATM, Networks, Layers, bandwidth, Traffic, Media, Rout-

ing, Algorithm, Computer, Internet, Service, Providers, protocol, switching

1 Introduction

Internet has seen an enormous growth since the World Wide Web (www) first sur-
faced back in 1991, from being used by a small percentage of people, it was earlier
used by people in the research community and then later on by large public networks.
Internet Service users have an increasing demand forcing the (ISP) to improve the
services and the quality being provided. (1)The contemporary advances especially in
the real-time Multimedia applications have increased our needs, for eg. faster routing,
higher bandwidth etc. The algorithm that provides simple routing for IP gives its best
performance only when it is suited to the data applications. Hence the reason why
voice and video traffics are transferred over MPLS as compared to ATM. MPLS does
have a number of issues that have to be fixed before it is generalized. However,
MPLS offers several useful techniques that can improve network operations.

The MPLS is able to offer a simpler mechanism for traffic engineering and multi
service functionality with the added benefits of greater scalability. MPLS can be de-
fined as a segment of the evolving Internet to reduce the complexity by combining

ICIDSSD 2020, February 27-28, New Delhi, India

Copyright © 2021 EAI
DOI 10.4108/eai.27-2-2020.2303140
Layer -2 switching and Layer-3 routing into a fully integrated solution for fast packet
forwarding. The MPLS offers a simpler technique for traffic engineering and func-
tioning of multiple services and it adds up the benefits like having greater scalability.
MPLS can be considered a part of the ever changing Internet that reduces the com-
plexity by combining the Network Layer and the Data Layer routing which in turn
provides a fast packet forwarding solution

2 Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS)

Telecommunication technologies have been persistently changing and it seems to be

improving faster and faster than ever-before. Transporting and delivering all types of
communication in the same network and access circuit has been the long held goal in
the telecommunications business.
MPLS changes the network mode from a routed network to a switched network. It
would normally forward packets on a step by step basis but in such a scenario certain
paths are established from source to destination. The paths which are predetermined
are also known as Label Switching Paths (LSPs).

Label Switching Routers (LSRs) form a Label Switched Network and they come in
different types:
• Ingress Router: This router is placed at the entrance of the LSP and it is
through this router only that normal IP traffic can reach into the MPLS LSP.
The incoming router receives the IP traffic and decides whether it has to go
through an LSP to reach its desired destination, this incoming router encap-
sulates the IP traffic with a MPLS header and forwards it to the next point.
(2)
• Transit Router: It is can be any router in the middle of the LSP. Analyzing
the incoming interface the router then decides where the packet is coming
from and the MPLS header encapsulated and decides where to send the
packet further.
• Pen-Ultimate Router: The penultimate route is the second last router in an
LSP, the pen-ultimate router is the router before the last point in an LSP,
since the last point in an LSP does not need to forward the packet to another
transit router, it does not require the MPLS header. It is responsible for re-
moving the MPLS header before passing it onto the last point in the LSP,
having the MPLS header removed by the penultimate router before passing it
on to the Egress router is optional.
• Egress Router: This router is placed at the exit point of the LSP, it receives
the traffic from the pen-ultimate router, it looks up the IP and forwards it us-
ing the normal IP routing.
MPLS can handle packets with specific characteristics, certain forwarding equiva-
lence class (FEC) are assigned when a packet enters in a network for the first time
One of the problems faced by conventional routing is the ability to remap routes, with
the help of MPLS packets which carry real time traffic, such as voice or video. These
can be remapped easily to low latency routes.

Fig. 1. MPLS Network Architecture

3 ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode)

Most technologies break data into small fragments that have poor performance be-
cause they lack the ability and mechanism to detect and transmit lost cells, when a
piece of information is lost in a transit, the only way to recover it is through retrans-
mitting the entire large packet again. ATM incorporates the technology to retransmit
only the cells that were not transmitted properly. ATM routing depends on two con-
nection types:
1. Virtual Channel Connection (VCC)
2. Virtual Path Connection (VPC). VPC is a collection of multiple VCCs.

ATM backbone involves legacy services and systems with corresponding ATM ser-
vices and provides a base infrastructure for consolidation of networks.
The ATM implementation architecture that helps in accomplishing the integration of
legacy system includes five-tier hierarchy.
 • An ATM backbone tier
• An ATM access tier
• A concentration tier
• An extended service tier
• A user tier

Fig. 2. ATM Backbone Architecture

4 Why MPLS over ATM

MPLS is a new technology which can be used over ATM by IP and can be setup in
private networks as well as public networks which are maintained either by ISP or the
Telecommunication Operators. It can be used for backbone networks which can be
used for Internet Protocols as well as for other layer protocols. MPLS being an inte-
grated model is an emerging IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) standard archi-
tecture and is based on Tag switching of Cisco. (3)

The basic functionality of MPLS is to connect the power of Data Layer with the rout-
ing connectivity of Network Layer. Due to this the benefits of MPLS include reduced
costs and reduced connectivity numbers as compared to ATM technology. A connec-
tion oriented mechanism is introduced in a connectionless IP network. Label
Switched Path is established for each route or path through the network.
ATM switching systems can have several structures with MPLS functionality which
can exchange a label at packet forwarding engine.

MPLS was originally envisioned to overcome the four original problems:

1. Layer3 network layer routing scalability
2. Forwarding performances increases
3. Cell switched-based technologies integration
4. Increased routing services delivery flexibility

There are a few basic differences between MPLS and ATM, ATM works in a circuit-
switched environment whereas, MPLS is made to work in modern packet switched
networks which can be either Ethernet or even IP.

The difference becomes evident when the two types of network topologies are de-
ployed. Point to Point connections are made in an ATM consisting of ATM adapters
at the end of the physical circuit. On the other hand MPLS works similar to that of an
Ethernet switch, it allows the network end points in any topology to be connected to
the MPLS network and mesh with a particular customer’s virtual mesh.

In order to recreate this design of meshing by the ATM, multiple ATM connections
need to be installed at each organization’s locations. The MPLS technology also ena-
bles the multi-protocol nature which helps in labeling and passing other protocols,
which includes ATM across an MPLS network. MPLS signaling protocols help in
establishing, maintaining and releasing label-switched paths (LSP).

5 MPLS Features / Advantages

The multipoint connectivity needs to be addressed in the global economy; it has clear-
ly become necessary to connect dispersed offices, resources and stake holders geo-
graphically. International connectivity can be introduced by the help of MPLS con-
nectivity by using high speed data service customers, MPLS can used to share mis-
sion critical data which can be secured at high levels of security and provides scalabil-
ity.

Five main features of the MPLS network include:

1. Scalability: MPLS networks are specifically designed for highly scalable so-
lutions. Only one provider edge (PE) is required to peer with the customer
site as compared to all the other CPE or customer edge (CE) routers. VPNs
can be created in the Layer 3 due to this connectionless architecture, it also
eliminates the need for tunneling and thus scaling is improved as compared
 to the customer based VPNs, this also helps in reducing the setting up and
management requirements.

2. Security: Connectionless VPNs offer the level of security as compared to

that of connection oriented VPNs. Packets do not cross involuntarily and at
the edge of network security is provided in order to ensure that the packets
received are placed on the correct VPN. Spoofing is nearly impossible as the
VPN traffic is normally kept separate. VPN labels are provided to identify
particular interface and sub interfaces.

3. Quality of Service (QoS): Quality of Service and the Network performance

for selected traffic can be improved using the MPLS. Different types of ser-
vices bring in multiple classes of service. For example, an enterprise’s mis-
sion-critical application can be placed in the top most section of service; the
applications less important might be in the Second best level of service, rec-
reational applications may be in the lower class services, separate class of
service can be given to reduce the jitter for VoIP traffic. Customers can pri-
oritize the traffic needs according to the business requirements. Packets can
also be marked in order to differentiate between the high quality packets and
the low end to end latency packets for voice and video.

4. Traffic Engineering: Traffic load on various links, switches and routers in

the network can be balanced by routing the data traffic, this process is known
as Traffic Engineering. Congestion is controlled as it has the ability to con-
trol specific routes. MPLS is capable of full traffic engineering.

5. Choice of Network Architectures: Depending on the requirements the net-

work can be designed in various ways such as Partially Meshed, Fully
Meshed, hub & Spoke etc. Ingress and Egress routers only distinguish the
different protocols.

6 MPLS VS ATM Performance Comparison

Traffic routing is one of the most important challenge faced for having an efficient
network. Percentage of Real Time Traffic has increased over the internet due to the
growing usage of Real Time Traffic applications. The core components play a very
important role in enhancing the network. Due to delay sensitivity, minimum Qos re-
quirements this kind of traffic requires more care.

MPLS and ATM both have special features which can support real time traffic. A
number of new features are being introduced in IP technology in order to support the
real time traffic because it is almost impossible to change the already existing IP
based network and Internet.
We use the following metrics for comparison and analysis of MPLS and ATM:

 Delay (sec): It represents the end to end delay. It is the summation of all de-
lays discussed in previous section.
 Throughput (pps): represents the total number of packets forwarded to high-
er layers per second.
 Utilization: It represents the percentage of the consumption of an available
channel bandwidth where a value of 100.0 would indicate full usage.
 FTP Download Response Time(sec): This is the time between the request for
channel is made and when the system starts download file.
 Normalized Delivered Traffic: It is the number of correctly received packets
normalized by sent packets from all clients. It indirectly shows the percent-
age of the dropped traffic over the network during simulation. (4)

7 Simulation Results and Analysis

i. Throughput
It depends on the link speed and the nature of the technology being used
to transmit the data. The result shows that the throughput performance
for both are degraded, it can be due to two possible reasons. First, there
is no Quality of Service enabled and there could be congestion along the
barrier. Secondly, the degradation could be due to the packet drop along
the way from Source to Destination.

Fig. 3. Throughput Graph of MPLS and ATM (5)

 ii. Queuing Delay
The quality of the real time traffic, especially the voice and Data is de-
stroyed due to the delay and the behavior of ATM shows that it is not fit
for real time traffic. MPLS has longer average queuing delay as com-
pared to ATM because the packet processing in MPLS node is faster
than in ATM.

Fig. 4. Queuing Graph of ATM and MPLS (5)

iii. Utilization
Utilization is very important in order to check the efficiency of a tech-
nology. I t shows how efficiently the resources have been used. Utiliza-
tion increases linearly with load until the saturation point is reached. The
average bandwidth for MPLS is 41% and ATM is 28%.

Fig. 5. Bandwidth Utilisation ATM and MPLS (5)

 iv. FTP Download Response Time
ATM response time is considerably less as compared to MPLS. This
concludes that ATM gives better performance as compared to MPLS.

v. Normalized Traffic Received

Connectionless and Connection oriented effects can be seen. Connec-
tionless behavior is responsible for the drops at the time of congestion; it
also runs the congestion avoidance mechanism which helps in avoiding
congestion. Connection oriented reduces dropped traffic to nil.

8 MPLS Drawbacks

i. One of the potential drawbacks of MPLS is that the carrier plays a very
important role. In static routing the service provider is responsible for
the routing whereas in dynamic routing the service provider and you will
have to work together to route the traffic.
ii. MPLS security is also one pf the potential drawbacks, MPLS networks
do not provide any kind of inbuilt security services which leads the net-
work exposed to different kinds of vulnerabilities.

9 Conclusion

If one is looking to upgrade a network then MPLS is the way to go. MPLS is more
helpful as it has the capability to combine the intelligence of routing and the perfor-
mance in networking which also helps in providing a considerable amount of benefit
to the network. In this paper we highlight the importance of MPLS and the need to
implement it in order to overcome the limitations provided by ATM. It also explains
the various standards used and also provides an insight to the performances based in
MPLS networks.
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