An OAM function to improve the packet loss in MPLS-TP domains for prioritized QoS-aware services

Summary The emergence of new kinds of applications and technologies (e.g., data‐intensive applications, server virtualization, and big data technology) has led to a higher utilization of network resources. These services imply increased bandwidth consumption and unexpected congestions, especially in backbones. In this article, a novel proposal is studied with the aim of improving the performance of prioritized forwarding equivalence classes in congested Multiprotocol Label Switching Transport Profile (MPLS‐TP) domains. The congestion impact on those QoS‐aware services that require high reliability and low delay is analyzed. A new policy has been implemented on MPLS‐TP, which is a technology that provides QoS by means of flow differentiation in the Internet backbones. The proposal is known as Gossip‐based local recovery policy and is offered as an operation, administration, and management function to allow local recovery of lost traffic for MPLS‐TP privileged forwarding equivalence classes. In order to fulfill the requirements for implementation on MPLS‐TP, a minimum set of extensions to resource reservation protocol traffic engineering has also been proposed to provide self‐management capable routes. Finally, we have carried out a performance improvement measurement by means of an analytical model and simulations. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The Gossip‐based local recovery policy is an operation, administration, and management Multiprotocol Label Switching Transport Profile (MPLS‐TP) function that improves the reliability and performance of prioritized forwarding equivalence classes in congested MPLS‐TP domains. It provides local recovery of lost traffic for MPLS‐TP privileged flows by means of a simply set of resource reservation protocol traffic engineering extensions. Thus, Gossip‐based local recovery policy cooperatively enables routers with self‐management congestion control capabilities, providing more resilience to MPLS‐TP domains in the face of data loss due to unexpected congestions.