:Book:MPLS-Enabled Applications from a CCIE candidate perspective

I started reading MPLS-Enabled Applications: Emerging Developments and New Technologies 3rd Edition with the goal of learning more about MPLS for my next CCIE attempt.  MPLS was one of the areas that I identified as needing improvement.  So please understand that my primary goal of reading this book was to understand MPLS for the CCIE RS v5.  I ordered this book last summer shortly after I failed my first CCIE attempt.  I read most of it while on holidays in France.  The downside of reading while on holidays is that I wasn’t able to supplement the reading with real world examples but the upside is that I had the time to read most of the book.

I don’t have a huge service provider background, so I’m always interesting is seeing how things are configured from the SP side.  Apart from understanding MPLS at a much deeper level, it was invaluable to understand the deployment and use cases for each particular MPLS technology.  I particularly found the concept of layer-1 fault protection very interesting.  The idea of having two paths pre-determined is similar to how routing protocols such as EIGRP feasible successors work but it’s on a layer-1 level.

After reading this book has made me ask different questions when ordering or enquiring about a particular service from an SP, especially in the fault tolerance and path protection areas.

Recommendation? Most definitely a Yes!

Would I recommend this book to CCIE candidates?  Absolutely, I would try to read this early on in your path as it provides a very vendor agnostic view of MPLS so you will still need to understand how those technologies are implemented by Cisco.  The entire book I was constantly thinking, ok I understand that concept I wonder how Cisco implemented it?  If you are pressed for time, you could probably get away with only reading Chapters 1: Foundations, 7: Foundations of Layer 3 BGP/MPLS Virtual Private Networks and 8: Advanced Topics in Layer 3 BGP/MPLS Virtual Private Networks.

I would also recommend this to any person who is designing or planning on designing a network.  The perspective it gives you is extremely useful, especially if you are ordering services from a service provider.