Most of the initial efforts to utilize Generalized MPLS (GMPLS) have
been related to environments hosting devices with a single switching
capability. The complexity raised by the control of such data planes
is similar to that seen in classical IP/MPLS networks. By extending
MPLS to support multiple switching technologies, GMPLS provides a
comprehensive framework for the control of a multi-layered network of
either a single switching technology or multiple switching
technologies.
In GMPLS, a switching technology domain defines a region, and a
network of multiple switching types is referred to in this document as
a multi-region network (MRN). When referring in general to a layered
network, which may consist of either single or multiple regions, this
document uses the term multi-layer network (MLN). This document
defines a framework for GMPLS based multi-region / multi-layer
networks and lists a set of functional requirements. This memo
provides information for the Internet community.