I agree that pretty much all the chipsets and asics out there today support MPLS, but it's the vendor and NOS that decides whether to enable it or not, or charge more for it. Example, Junipers EX4600, QFX5100 and ACX5048 all have the same Broadcom Trident II+ ASIC inside. One supports full MPLS features (ACX), while the other is limited (QFX), and then the EX is even more limited. . Only difference is what Juniper has enabled or disabled in software to my knowledge. All 3 run JUNOS, just different flavors. Mikrotik's MPLS stack is quite limited, but I hope that will change soon in version 7 that was just released. Honestly hoping that Mikrotik kicks half these vendors in the nuts with everything they are implementing in v7 with the new linux kernel and a development team that is 3x as large. 100G switches are coming soon from them with Marvell ASICs VyOS doesn't run on any ASIC based systems to my knowledge, so its just a software router. Extreme charges extra to enable MPLS in their SLX lineup. Ciena, Ribbon, and others do the same. On Sat, Jan 15, 2022 at 1:47 PM Mark Tinka <mark@tinka.africa> wrote:
On 1/15/22 19:22, Colton Conor wrote:
True, but in general MPLS is more costly. It's available on limited devices, from limited vendors. Infact, many of these vendors, like Extreme, charge you if you want to enable MPLS features on a box.
Well, I don't entirely agree.
Pretty much all chips shipping now, either custom or merchant silicon, will support MPLS. Whether the vendor chooses to implement it in code or not is a whole other matter.
If you need MPLS, chances are you can afford it. If you don't, then you don't have to worry about it.
For Extreme, are you referring to before or after they picked up Brocade?
There is MPLS available in a number of cheap software suites. Even Mikrotik provides MPLS support. Whether it works or not, I can't tell you.
VyOS supports is too. Whether it works or not, I can't tell you.
But I think we are long past the days of "MPLS is expensive".
Mark.