Traffic Engineering with MPLS

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book - not for the technically weak.
Review: As most CCIE's do, I ventured out in search of my next technical mastery. After reading the MPLS and VPN Architectures book from Cisco Press, I decided to venture onward into the Traffic Engineering aspect of MPLS. WoW! There sure is a lot of information out there and this book does a good job on covering the in depth details of the topic. I would however not recommend this book if you haven't read the first book mentioned as a primer/base for your MPLS knowledge because this one dives in deep very quickly.

I work for a large service provider and we are designing a new MPLS based network to support several very large customers global networks therefore I need to be on top of the MPLS game. Not only does this book cover the MPLS TE concepts very well but also gets in to the tough areas of QOS such as RSVP, Diffserv and even into SPF!

The chapters that I found the most rewarding were chapters 9 and 10 because not only are the diagrams easy to follow and apply to the topic at hand but they discuss the "knobs" that's be tweaked to make MPLS do exactly as you want it to which is the goal of this book.

This book also covers topics such as IS-IS, Multicast routing, LDP-TDP, and the innards of MPLS as well as TE.

Rating:
Summary: The Premier Reference on MPLS and TE
Review: For Internet backbone engineers, and those who wish to be, Traffic Engineering, or TE is a key skill. From my experience there is no greater expert in this area than Eric Osborne. This book is a great way for MPLS novice's to learn and add to their skills, and an essential "bookshelf" reference for any experienced network engineers. With an easy style, and a clear and concise manner, Eric and his co-author, Ajay Simha, provide a realistic guide to MPLS TE, including RSVP, SNMP, and troubleshooting. Unlike many similar works, it is clearly grounded in the reality of large networks, rather than theoretical vendor simulations. Eric and Ajay are right up there with Khalid Raza, Bruce Caslow, and Jeff Doyle, in terms of the "essential" authors. Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: What is the last reviewer going on about?
Review: I had to write this review to offset some of the utter rubbish written in the previous review! I am a CCIE, a JNCIS, etc., etc., I design MPLS networks, I teach advanced MPLS, and I can say without a shadow of doubt that this book is one of the most accurate, well-written, and informative that I possess. So, 5 stars from me - ignore the frankly absurd nit-picking in the previous review and get this book!

Rating:
Summary: Only book of it's type
Review: I'm up to P.274.

Two reasons I bought this book
- I needed to know about MPLS TE
- I don't think there are any other MPLS TE books around.

I've worked in a SP for 3 years on MPLS/VPN so I'm familiar with labelly things.

On the whole it's good but not great. It is NOT in the same class as Jeff Doyle for clarity.

The book has no Glossary - incredible!

P.48 Fig. 2-10, text box on top right needs English fixed.
P.49 Does VC merge use AAL5 'last cell' bit in ATM header? If so, say so.
P.62 Hellos & Keepalives 'explanation' is confused.
P.93 I found the explanation on Affinity very confusing and had to read it many time to comprehend it. I expect to have to read this a

few times but not many. Eg. I gather Attribute is what is configured on link and Affinity is what is configured on Headend and is

therefore carried in protocol (which protocol: CSPT or RSVP-TE?)
P.96 "Tunnel affinities and link attributes can be confusing" then rework the explanation so it's clear.
P.115 Table 4-1 called "Class Map Matches". Is this right?
P.143 to 158 All the packet contents should have been put in an appendix.
P.146 "Yes, this is confusing", for something which is quite simple.
P.160 *** Excellent idea putting line numbers in so they can be refered to in explanation. ***
P.172 Paragraph starts "This can be confusing to most people". What a negative way to start the explanation! This is code for 'we

didn't work long enough at the explanation long enough to make it clear'.
P.177 "top link to gsr8" and there is only one link.
P.185 "Example 4-32" should be "Example 4-34".
P.186 "Example 4-0" in 3 places should be "Example 4-35", "Example 4-36", "Example 4-37" respecively.
P.236 Needs clarification & correction to,
"Figure 5-11 shows an *abnormal* scenario in which changing the metric *before* SPF, rather than *after* makes a difference. Note that

text on Table 5-17 correctly says *before*.

P.242 In table 5-21 and just after it should emphasise which is unexpected behaviour and why.
P.242 Last paragraph "Router F" should be "Router G". "B->D->E->F" should be "B->D->E->G". "C->E->F" should be
P.270 2nd bullet point "In both the ip2mpls ans mpls2mpls pop cases.." is confused since 'ip2mpls' is not label popping but label

imposition. However this is in sync with paragraph which follows it "...if you set a packet's EXP values differently from the

underlying IP packet (which is ip2mpls), or if change the EXP values in the top of a label stack (which is mpls2mpls).
P.274, Fig. 6-8. There is no explanation for why ip2mpls and mpls2mpls don't follow the rules of P.273 Table 6-5. Presumably it's so

that at mpls2ip, the EXP overwriting it's equivalent DSCP can be seen. Same comment for Figs. 6-9 and 6-10.

Cisco Press had no errata for this book 3nov03.

I'm sure there were other reviews of this book when I looked here a few weeks ago ?!?!?!

Rating:
Summary: Information overload
Review: Information Overload! The authors Eric Osborne and co-author Ajay Simha are definitely traffic engineering gurus! I don't know where to start on this book. Ok first things first. If you haven't read MPLS and VPN Architectures or don't have a firm understanding of MPLS and MPLS VPN's this is not the book for you. It is however a great , great book it you actually know what you are reading!

I work for an ISP that is currently rolling out MPLS in the network, and my department will be doing customer support once implemented. I was hoping to get a vague understanding of traffic engineering concepts before the product was rolled out. Man was I wrong! I definitely think this book gives you a FIRM understanding of everything that is MPLS TE. I would say that it has definitely bought me up to speed on implementing tunnels and how IGP's and VPN's interact with TE. This is definitely going to be desktop reference for me for years to come.

My favorite chapters in the book definitely have to be Chapter 9 (Network Design with MPLS TE) and Chapter 10 (MPLS TE deployment tips). There were some pretty good diagrams there that really put the whole thing together for me. As well as case studies and issues that you may run into when implementing MPLS TE.

As with all Cisco books the reading is a little dry, but very technical. The second chapter that went over LDP was a little too in depth for my taste. I find it fascinating on how complex LDP actually is (chapter 2 is about 50 pages if I'm correct).

Rating:
Summary: great book on MPLS TE
Review: The book provides very thorough and insightful presentation of Traffic Engineering using MPLS and all scalability and operational issues associated with it. It also covers in detail Cisco's implementation of MPLS TE, configuration and troubleshooting techniques and commands. I personally liked the presentation of some concepts using case studies in a very realistic network configurations.

The authors are also kind enough to share a lot of their practical experience and "rules of thumb". With a target audience of network engineers and designers the book requires in-depth knowledge of IP routing, understanding of MPLS and experience in a carrier/ISP network environment.

For technical readers interested in deploying and running networks using MPLS TE I would highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Not for the technically weak....
Review: Traffic Engineering with MPLS (ISBN 1587050315)
Eric Osborne, Ajay Simha

As most CCIE's do, I ventured out in search of my next technical mastery. After reading the MPLS and VPN Architectures book from Cisco Press, I decided to venture onward into the Traffic Engineering aspect of MPLS. WoW! There sure is a lot of information out there and this book does a good job on covering the in depth details of the topic. I would however not recommend this book if you haven't read the first book mentioned as a primer/base for your MPLS knowledge because this one dives in deep very quickly.

I work for a large service provider and we are designing a new MPLS based network to support several very large customers global networks therefore I need to be on top of the MPLS game. Not only does this book cover the MPLS TE concepts very well but also gets in to the tough areas of QOS such as RSVP, Diffserv and even into SPF!

The chapters that I found the most rewarding were chapters 9 and 10 because not only are the diagrams easy to follow and apply to the topic at hand but they discuss the "knobs" that's be tweaked to make MPLS do exactly as you want it to which is the goal of this book.

This book also covers topics such as IS-IS, Multicast routing, LDP-TDP, and the innards of MPLS as well as TE.

Rating:
Summary: Not for the technically weak....
Review: Traffic Engineering with MPLS (ISBN 1587050315)
Eric Osborne, Ajay Simha

As most CCIE's do, I ventured out in search of my next technical mastery. After reading the MPLS and VPN Architectures book from Cisco Press, I decided to venture onward into the Traffic Engineering aspect of MPLS. WoW! There sure is a lot of information out there and this book does a good job on covering the in depth details of the topic. I would however not recommend this book if you haven't read the first book mentioned as a primer/base for your MPLS knowledge because this one dives in deep very quickly.

I work for a large service provider and we are designing a new MPLS based network to support several very large customers global networks therefore I need to be on top of the MPLS game. Not only does this book cover the MPLS TE concepts very well but also gets in to the tough areas of QOS such as RSVP, Diffserv and even into SPF!

The chapters that I found the most rewarding were chapters 9 and 10 because not only are the diagrams easy to follow and apply to the topic at hand but they discuss the "knobs" that's be tweaked to make MPLS do exactly as you want it to which is the goal of this book.

This book also covers topics such as IS-IS, Multicast routing, LDP-TDP, and the innards of MPLS as well as TE.

Rating:
Summary: traffic engineering with MPLS
Review: Very well written and with sufficient depth. I particularly like Chapter 9 (Network Design with MPLS TE) & 10 (MPLS TE Deployment Tips). However, most of the MPLS networks deployed have MPLS VPN service, if the authors have a case study or deployment considerations on MPLS VPN with MPLS TE, this book would be really great. On the whole, i strongly recommend this book for those who want to learn MPLS TE in Cisco platform.
Ajay & Eric, thanks for sharing your knowledge with us and keep up the good work !! :)