What is MPLS VPN?

What is MPLS?

MPLS means Multi-Protocol Label Switching that speeds up and shapes the traffic flow. It is used within computer network infrastructures to speed up the time of a data packet to flow from one node to another. It enables computer networks to be faster and easier to manage by using short path labels instead of long network addresses for routing network packets. Some of the major benefits of MPLS are scalability, assured QoS (Quality of Service), better utilization of bandwidth, reduced network congestion, and seamless user experience.

What is MPLS VPN?

MPLS VPN can be defined as a type of VPN infrastructure that utilizes multiprotocol label switching techniques to deliver its services. It is a suite of different MPLS-based VPN technologies that provide the ability to utilize multiple protocols and technologies for creating and managing communications in a VPN environment.

Learn more: WAN MPLS

Why a company needs an MPLS VPN?

To manage in today’s dynamic converged application traffic patterns, enterprises need to deploy MPLS VPN in their environment. The question is – public internet is already very fast and has a near-ubiquitous global reach, why businesses still need an MPLS based VPN?

The apt answer to this question is that public internet only focuses on the transport of data packets with no consideration of QoS (Quality of Service), uptime guarantee, and offers limited capabilities. Though for the past few years, public internet has worked fine for e-mail and file transfers, there is a need for an advanced protocol that can support converged applications and multimedia traffic.

Another reason is video being the fastest-growing application these days, bringing immense traffic for profitable business growth. A single commercial internet connection often comes up with capacity limitations. This connection doesn’t have enough capacity to support various applications and multimedia traffic. If enterprises purchase and manage multiple connections to achieve the desired capacity during peak hours, they will eventually add costs and complexity to the equation. They also need to achieve low latency required for real-time communications to work properly.