MPLS VPN Security and Scalability

Abstract

A private network is composed of computers that are owned and administered by a single organization that share information with each other. Private networks are provisioned using dedicated leased line connections, each line providing a point-to-point connection between two customers. Such networks are expensive to put in place, especially if the connections between sites need to support some level of redundancy and each needs to be directly connected to each other. There is also no scope in such a system to share underutilized bandwidth between several customers, or conversely to increase the bandwidth available particular sites dynamically in order to meet short term peaks in demand. RFC 2547bis also known as BGP/MPLS VPN defines a mechanism that allows service providers to use their IP backbone to provide VPN services to their customers. The primary objectives of this approach are as follows 1) Make the service very simple for customer to use even if they lack experience in IP routing. 2) Make the service very scalable and flexible to facilitate large-scale deployment. 3) Allow the policies that are used to create a VPN to be implemented by the service provider alone, or by the service provider working together with the customer. In this thesis various aspects of BGP/MPLS VPN based on RFC 2547bis are discussed, such as scalability, security and configurations. It is discussed how BGP/MPLS VPN are scalable requiring few site to be interconnected by using simple mechanisms, also while deploying these scalability feature how BGP /MPLS VPN provide the same level of security as any traditional layer 2 VPNs such as IPSec, Frame relay and ATM based VPNs .In the last basic configuration steps required for deploying BGP/MPLS VPN are mentioned. Therefore it is easy to understand how it is better to provision BGP/MPLS VPN and is a need for today’s high speed networks to meet the increasing demands of customer.