Re: Cisco's IOS-XE and PCEP implementation

[Mohamed Kamal <mkamal () noor net>]

> and hence being implemented on IOS-XR within the Cisco environment today

I disagree! .. Engineering is all about optimization, and using an ASR1k
(which is being marketed as an "edge/PE router") in my edge doesn't mean
that my network is not a "high-scale environment", it does mean that it
fits my needs in this location, where other IOS-XR (ASR9k) fits in others.

Plus, PCEP is no magic, Juniper's MX series starting from the vMX is
supporting PCEP. They didn't claim that, a "higher-scale environment" is
being required for this.

> the demand for online calculation has increased - either due to dependencies for new TE path-instantiating protocols 
> (e.g., SR), or more complex constraints that cannot be well met by offline calculation or CSPF

That's why PCEP support should be added to the road-map in the near future.

Mohamed Kamal
Core Network Sr. Engineer

On 4/5/2015 8:33 PM, Rob Shakir wrote:
> On 30 March 2015 at 15:42:59, Mohamed Kamal (mkamal () noor net) wrote:
> > I'm wondering, why there is no MPLS-TE PCE support for IOS-XE till now?!
> >  
> > Should I be getting a 9k/CRS on the edge to implement an automatic tool
> > to build MPLS-TE tunnels!
> In general, PCE(P) implementations have been limited. IMHO the last 10 years of RSVP-TE management has generally been 
> done with auto-mesh tools, or in-house driven offline path calculation tools (e.g., WANDL, Cariden, Aria…). 
>
> As such, the demand for online calculation has increased - either due to dependencies for new TE path-instantiating 
> protocols (e.g., SR), or more complex constraints that cannot be well met by offline calculation or CSPF (e.g., 
> path-diversity with disjoint head-end PEs). This demand is mainly coming in higher-scale environments - and hence 
> being implemented on IOS-XR within the Cisco environment today. I expect this is why IOS-XE is lagging. There are 
> certainly requests for support - but as Mark says, you’ll need to interface with your account team to figure out when 
> code will be available for your platform.
>
> As to whether you should buy an IOS XR device for your edge, I’m not sure what kind of logic would mean that device 
> selection is solely based on PCEP support :-). I would certainly look more into the existing “automatic” tools, and 
> possibilities for offline calculation in the interim period.
>
> r.