| With the fast growth of Internet and the wide deployment of networks across broad geographic areas, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) technologies are increasingly used by service providers to deliver cost effective and value-added solutions to their enterprise customers. This research examines one of the latest point-to-point VPN technologies known as Martini VPN, which provides pseudo-wire service over MPLS networks. Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is considered to be the standard for the next generation of Internet routing protocols, due to its advantages over the conventional IP routing, such as efficient packet forwarding, traffic engineering and quality of service. In this thesis, an Ethernet-based Martini VPN module was designed and implemented in an industrial setting, being integrated with EION's Open IP software suite. Its performance was evaluated by both measurements and simulation. A new QoS enhancement model was proposed for providing port-based DiffServ-like service at the edge nodes of an MPLS network. The effectiveness of the proposed approach was studied by simulation using the OPNet tool. |
