How do you compare and benchmark MPLS traffic engineering metrics across different vendors and platforms?

1 Define your objectives and requirements

Before you start comparing and benchmarking MPLS TE metrics, you need to define your objectives and requirements for your network. What are the goals and challenges of your network design and operation? What are the key performance indicators (KPIs) and service level agreements (SLAs) that you need to meet or exceed? How do you measure and monitor your network performance and quality? These questions will help you determine what metrics are relevant and important for your network, and how to prioritize them.

2 Understand the vendor and platform capabilities and limitations

Next, you need to understand the vendor and platform capabilities and limitations for MPLS TE. Different vendors and platforms may support different MPLS TE features, such as constraint-based routing, fast reroute, admission control, load balancing, or path computation. They may also use different algorithms, parameters, or methods to calculate and optimize the MPLS TE paths. You need to know what features and functions are available and compatible for each vendor and platform, and how they affect the MPLS TE metrics.

3 Choose a common and consistent methodology and toolset

To compare and benchmark MPLS TE metrics across different vendors and platforms, you need to choose a common and consistent methodology and toolset. You need to define the scope, criteria, and scenarios for your comparison and benchmarking, such as the network topology, traffic patterns, failure events, or optimization objectives. You also need to select the tools and methods to collect, analyze, and report the MPLS TE metrics, such as network simulators, traffic generators, probes, or software applications. You need to ensure that the tools and methods are reliable, accurate, and compatible for each vendor and platform.

4 Compare and benchmark the MPLS TE metrics

Finally, you need to compare and benchmark the MPLS TE metrics based on your objectives and requirements, and the vendor and platform capabilities and limitations. You need to compare the metrics in terms of their values, trends, variations, and distributions, as well as their impacts on the network performance and quality. You also need to benchmark the metrics against the KPIs and SLAs that you have defined, and identify any gaps or deviations. You need to interpret the results and draw conclusions from your comparison and benchmarking, and provide recommendations for improvement or optimization.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?