The International Telecommunication Union, Standardization Sector (ITU-T) is satisfied with an option for handling the dispute over MPLS-TP operations, administration and maintenance (OAM).

But as readers point out in our message board below, the answer still needs an OK from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) , the governing body for MPLS and MPLS-TP standards. Specifically, the IETF needs to assign a code point, an identifier that would flag certain packets as using the ITU's G.8113.1 version of OAM.

As Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. employee Huub van Helvoort pointed out on our message boards early Tuesday morning, the idea is to craft a compromise whereby the ITU's Y.1731-based option for OAM (known as G.8113.1) would become an ITU recommendation, but would not be included in the "MPLS" definitions set by the IETF.

There had been industry opposition to G.8113.1, with some vendors preferring plain multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) management -- which is the G.8113.2 proposal. G.8113.1 will, as expected, have its name changed to disconnect it from "MPLS" proper. The new name is: "Alternative mechanisms for Operations, Administration and Maintenance of MPLS-TP networks using the tools defined in G.8013/Y.1731."

Think that's long and unwieldy? The G.8113.2 name is: "Operations, Administration and Maintenance mechanisms for MPLS-TP networks using the tools defined for MPLS."

So there.

The relevant ITU documents can be found here.

Here's our coverage of the MPLS-TP OAM saga:

— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading