In recent years, significant work has been completed on traffic
engineering enhancements to the generalized multiprotocol label
switching protocol suite [1-3]. As a next step, reproducing the current
trend of switching layers' integration happening in the data plane,
network control is foreseen to go beyond the traditional per layer
approach and tend toward an integrated model [4, 5]. In these
multilayer environments, a single GMPLS control plane drives various
distinct switching layers at the same time and as a coherent whole,
taking benefit from the "common" property of GMPLS. Beyond this
application of supporting network control across different
technologies, in this article we catalog the unified traffic
engineering paradigms, discuss their applicability, and present their
enforcement techniques. Furthermore, we show that the common GMPLS
concept has the advantage of low operational complexity, and enables
unified TE capabilities such as efficient network resource usage and
rapid service provisioning.
