Design and Simulation of Traffic Engineering using MPLS in GNS3 Environment

Traffic engineering [1] is one of the best solution of IP routing when the routes are overloaded. Generally the router uses the shortest path solution from source to destination, so if at the same time all routers are looking for shortest path, their might be possibility of overloading and delay. So MPLS not just rely on shortest path. It utilized the underutilized paths, when all shortest paths are over utilized. The main objective of this work is to simulate the workings of MPLS with Traffic Engineering [2] in a network and to perform analysis of the advantages provided by MPLS as opposed to other commonly used network protocols. Additional objective is to assimilate exhaustive information on MPLS basics and fundamentals which helps beginners. Also, simulation of IP, ATM, FR etc based networks forms a part of the additional targets of this article. We have used GNS3 Simulator and Cisco 2691 Router iso image.