Comments on: Difference between VPN and MPLS

By: tessalp

tessalp — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:45:12 +0000

That's a great question. SearchEnterpriseWAN.com has a tutorial answering that very question here: MPLS VPN fundamentals. I hope it helps!

By: brettdaren

brettdaren — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 05:09:44 +0000

A VPN works by using the shared public infrastructure while maintaining privacy through security procedures and tunneling protocols such as the Layer Two Tunneling Protocol (L2TP). In effect, the protocols, by encrypting data at the sending end and decrypting it at the receiving end, send the data through a “tunnel” that cannot be “entered” by data that is not properly encrypted. An additional level of security involves encrypting not only the data, but also the originating and receiving network addresses.
Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a mechanism in high-performance telecommunications networks that directs data from one network node to the next based on short path labels rather than long network addresses, avoiding complex lookups in a routing table

By: uvic

uvic — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 01:27:40 +0000

VPN here, you probably mean IP VPN. MPLS also includes L2 VPN and L3 VPN. MPLS L2 VPN includes VPWS and VPLS which correspoinding to point to point VPN and point to multpoint VPN. There are too much stuff required to cover to make it clear. Put in simple way, VPN is a way to secure the data traffic through an encrypted tunnel. MPLS is a protocol which is kind of technology just like IP. So sometimes, you often see MPLS comes up with IP such as IP/MPLS. Hope it will not confuse you much.

By: kevinbeaver

kevinbeaver — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:43:19 +0000

Both are relatively secure as well…in case that matters.