[c-nsp] REP

[Shane Amante]

Rubens,

Rubens Kuhl Jr. wrote:
> Also in the market, Allied Telesis has EPSR or something like that. It
> would be a Good Thing if all those Ethernet ring protocols were
> replaced by a standard one,

Fortunately, there is hope in this regard.  Take a look at ITU G.8032.
<http://www.ieee802.org/1/files/public/docs2008/liaison-itut-g8032-overview-0308.pdf>

There are a number of vendors that are already in the process of 
implementing this.  It would be good if people find value in it to 
"encourage" their particular vendors to implement it as well.  This 
would help SP's move away from the proprietary ring protection protocols 
like: Extreme EAPS, Foundry's MRP, Force10's FRRP, Cisco's REP, etc. 
(When you have at least 4 different vendors doing nearly the same thing 
in incompatible ways, it's surprising there isn't a standard).

It should be noted that the above is the first "version" of G.8032. 
Take a look at p. 13 in that URL for planned enhancement to future 
revisions of G.8032.

-shane


> but that doesn't prevent a network from
> running different rings with different vendors, as they all provide
> similar performance.