GMPLS: THE PROMISE OF THE NEXT-GENERATION OPTICAL CONTROL PLANE.

The article informs that generalized multiprotocol label switching (GMPLS) is a family of IP-based control plane protocols devised within the Internet Engineering Task Force, and intended to offer an advanced and uniform control plane for a variety of network technologies from packet switching networks, through layer 2 and time-division multiplexing networks, to lambda and fiber switching. Significant drivers for the development of GMPLS were advances in wavelength-division multiplexing technology and the promise of a unified control plane for the new optical networks. A question often asked is why there has not been much traction with GMPLS protocols in the optical market. There is an argument that signaled end-to-end connections, whether via GMPLS, frame relay, or asynchronous transfer mode, have never really succeeded in market. Operators prefer to retain precise manual control over the way traffic is placed within their networks rather than relinquish that control to the software and protocols in control plane, no matter how "intelligent" that control plane is supposed to be. Furthermore, there has been little incentive for service providers to use a dynamic provisioning technique in networks where physical resources are in any case dedicated to services they support.