First Mile Access Networks and Enabling Technologies

ATM and MPLS Implementation Costs

From a deployment perspective, ATM has a higher CAPEX than MPLS solutions. First, ATM equipment is hardware driven; therefore, there is an additional cost of ATM interfaces. In contrast, MPLS solutions are primarily software driven. Routers can be upgraded to incorporate a label switching philosophy by software alone. Whereas ATM solutions are good for trimming operational expenditure. The net requirement for provisioning and maintaining ATM is quite low. ATM is not easily scalable but provides guarantee of service. MPLS is highly scalable, but as the size increases management of both MPLS and ATM networks can be rigorous. Keeping track of the labels, FECs, and bindings can create severe memory-processor convolutions ...