What is MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching)?

MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching)

• Challenges of MPLS (which helped drive the push to SD-WAN):
  • Expensive connectivity
  • Long time to deploy (60, 90, 120 days plus lead time)
  • Cloud & mobile access are neglected
  • Internet performance & availability
  • Security
  • Management

• With the old, pre-SD-WAN:
  • ’Hub & Spoke’ topology
  • Branches communicated with the hub & the data center
  • Internet access was typically centralized out of the Home Office
  • Cloud internet went thru Headquarters
  • MPLS gave up predictability & availability

Backhauling internet traffic to the Data Center for security consumes a lot of expensive MPLS bandwidth and it often means added latency. (The “trombone effect”!)

MPLS circuits are expensive.