Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)

When the Peeredge Orchestrator is directly connected to a service provider or customer’s MPLS network, a dedicated MPLS Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) instance can be assigned to each customer.

If there is a network-to-network interface (NNI) connection directly into the 46 Labs data centers, then a dedicated VLAN in the 46 Labs datacenters is connected to each customer’s MPLS VRF. The 46 Labs datacenter subnets (hosting the customer's Peeredge Orchestrators) are advertised into the customer’s VRF via multi-protocol BGP. The customer’s MPLS VRF must contain the routes the IP subnets necessary to reach the customer's SIP Trunking endpoints. If a media flow-around design is used, then the IP subnets for all IP endpoints (i.e. phones) must also be advertised and reachable in the customer’s MPLS VRF. Since each MPLS customer has a dedicated VRF, MPLS networks are typically considered to be secure.  As such, the UDP protocol is typically used to provide SIP/RTP connectivity to the Peeredge Orchestrator.

If there is no NNI connection the customer's MPLS provider and 46 Labs, then the customer can order an MPLS circuit directly to the 46 Labs datacenters (the 46 Labs datacenter would simply be another MPLS site directly connected to the customer's MPLS network).

Pros

• Use end-to-end quality of service (QoS) configurations to guarantee high-quality voice calls across the MPLS network. 

• Support a media flow-around (anchor media disabled) design to optimize the routing of RTP/SRTP media between the customer’s endpoints (i.e. IP Phones) and the Peeredge SBC.  

Cons

• More expensive than other network connectivity options.