Abstract

A growing number of corporations are considering IP Virtual Private Network (VPNs) for interconnection between different sites. Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is one of the technologies used in network-based IP VPNs to establish backbone tunnels---label switched paths (LSPs) between an ingress---egress pair of nodes. In order to provide service differentiation, separate LSPs, that carry only real-time VPN traffic, can be deployed. These real-time LSPs can then be routed, based on the strict service level agreement (SLA) requirements that apply to real-time applications. In this thesis we address the following traffic engineering problem: How to route primary and protection real-time LSPs so that the SLA requirements expressed in terms of latency, jitter, bandwidth guarantees, and resilience are met? We formulate a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) optimization problem that takes into account the SLA requirements in one step---the integrated model. The integrated model is NP-complete and has a large number of variables and constraints.