Hi All You may recall some discussions on this list back in March about the ITU-T developing a competing MPLS standard to the IETF: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/pipermail/nznog/2011-March/017460.html This is still an issue and I recently received the following email from an overseas contact that I thought it would be useful to share:
ITU-T SG15 is proposing to approve an MPLS Recommendation at its next meeting (December 2011). The history as to why this situation has come about is itself contentious. However were this approval to proceed, there is considerable belief in industry that the creation of a second standard, in addition to the IETF’s MPLS RFC, would be confusing and detrimental to industry.
The approval of the recommendation is following the ITU-T’s traditional approvals process. This process requires Member States to give the ITU-T the authority to approve the Recommendation, in order for the ITU-T SG15 meeting to be allowed to approve it. [name removed] is trying to assess whether there is sufficient support by Member States to stop authority being granted to the ITU T SG15 meeting and that would remove approval of the Recommendation from the meeting.
One reason for withholding such support is to give the IETF time to complete its activities. Since the ITU has started its approval’s process, the IETF has been working to develop RFC;s that cover the same issues. Should these activities in the IETF be successful then the need for having the ITU-T Recommendation can be questioned, with the intention of avoiding having 2 standards.
If you would like to see the NZG support this action to prevent the ITU-T from developing a competing standard to the IETF then please speak up and I will pass on the feedback, or alternatively please contact the relevant person from MED directly - Frank March