Experiments and enhancements for IP and ATM integration: the IthACI project

I. Andrikopoulos, G. Pavlou, P. Georgatsos, N. Karatzas, K. Kavidopoulos, L. Rothig, S. Schaller, D. Ooms, P. Van Heuven
2001 IEEE Communications Magazine  
IthACI has been a European project in the ACTS framework concentrating on fast layer 2 forwarding methods for IP traffic based on labeled flow mechanisms. The approach is also known as IP switching and is considered promising for enhancing IP performance. Several flavors of IP switching have been proposed by various vendors (e.g., IP Switching by Ipsilon, Tag Switching by Cisco, ARIS by IBM, IPSOFACTO by NEC), all of them different and not interoperable. IP Switching has been adopted by the
more » ... under the umbrella of Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS). 1 Although MPLS has made remarkable progress recently, a number of issues remain largely open for further investigation. The scope of the IthACI project was to address such issues and propose solutions. The issues addressed were multicast, QoS, resource management, and mobility support in a multicast environment. IthACI conducted both theoretical and experimental work. Three network islands, each based on a different flavor of IP switching, were set-up and the interoperability of these different IP switching/MPLS flavors were investigated and demonstrated. 1 The terms MPLS and IP switching are used interchangeably throughout this article. THE ITHACI PROJECT Communications Networks Group (IBCN) in 1998; the latter is headed by Prof. Piet Demeester (demeester@intec. rug.ac.be). He is working toward a Ph.D. degree and worked previously in the ACTS IthACI project. His research interests include MPLS, network resilience, QoS and traffic engineering, and Linux-based routers. Although the project experimented with proprietary solutions that were available at the time, the solutions that were proposed apply to MPLS in general.
doi:10.1109/35.920870 fatcat:lt3goppdpnaldfnhc5v6e3v7zy