Does one need to personally manage MLPS VPN connection to have MPLS between building or can the ISP provide this connection for you?

Question

There are 3 buildings (IT system) that need to be links together but the distance between them are very far apart (min between 230 - 470 km).

How do one manage to provide connection between all of them?

• I mean more specifically, is there even a need to personally manage the connection between them or can the service provider handle the MPLS VPN connection?

• Consequently, does the router/switch need to have some specific support like MPLS support to handle the MPLS VPN connection or does it need another specific support?

Installing "P2P leased line" in this case will be too expensive due to the limitation in budget (around $45000).

Answer 1

MPLS support is only rarely a requirement for enterprise equipment, especially relatively simple setups like the one you describe. MPLS itself is usually hidden away in the carrier networks. For your situation you basically you have two options :

• you can ask a network carrier to provide a private VPN service, which will typically be MPLS based. In much of the world this includes the necessary router, so you can pretty much just plus your LAN into the routers at each site. This is probably what you had in mind with your "P2P leased line".
• you can get Internet circuits from an ISP and build your own VPN on top of them. This is typically not MPLS but rather an IPSec VPN, which you can either have a service provider manage, or manage yourself by setting up VPN features on firewalls that you will implement at each site.

The main difference between the two is that MPLS services usually come with service level guarantees regarding availability and performance that you won't get with an ISP, but of course those guarantees come with a typically higher cost.

Answer 2

Unless you are going to lay your own cabling and connect the sites together, you will need to speak to a service provider to connect these two up. Usually the WAN connection will be managed by the provider with a guaranteed SLA which will be included in the service contract. Anything connected to the service provider equipment on the customer side, will be your responsibility to manage, but the actual link between the two sites will be the service provider's responsibility to maintain and manage and give you a satisfying service.

The service provider will install their equipment on both sites which will support the protocol that they will use. You will need to use a router that supports NAT and a firewall would also be advantageous for security reasons.

The router will enable you to route between the two sites and this will be your responsibility. Basically, they will provide you a path to the remote site and it will be up to you to setup the route path based on the IP range they give you.

Hope this helps on your quest.

SleepyMan