Category: big picture

Greg (@etherealmind) Ferro started an interesting discussion on Google+, claiming MPLS is just tunneling and a duct tape like NAT. I would be the first one to admit MPLS has its complexities (not many ;) and shortcomings (a few ;), but calling it a tunnel just confuses the innocents. MPLS is not tunneling, it’s a virtual-circuits-based technology, and the difference between the two is a major one.

Ever since I’ve figured out how to explain complex topics to bright engineers, I wanted to develop content (books, courses, documents) that explained (in this order):

• The Big Picture and WIIFM (What will the student gain by understanding and deploying something based on what I’m describing).
• How the technology we’re using actually works (remember: knowledge, not recipes) and finally
• How to configure, monitor and troubleshoot the actual boxes used to build the solution.

I’m positive you agree this approach makes perfect sense, and every now and then I’ve managed to get it right (for example, in the MPLS VPN books). Unfortunately, you’re often facing an uphill battle, as people want to focus on hands-on topics and hate to learn why things work the way they do instead of memorizing recipes like “Thou shalt not have more than 3 OSPF areas per router”.