Today's ISPs are faced with many choices in growing their network topology and architecture. This presentation outlines issues and considerations when making decisions to deploy a greenfield network. A greenfield network is a term usually describing an original first-generation deployment of a telecommunications network.

Specifically, this presentation will address technology decisions regarding network design and L2 protocol choices. Furthermore, we will discuss traffic engineering and scalability as strong components of a network design. Topics to be covered include:

1. Designing a network: considering issues such as assets, cost structures, and goals
2. Deciding between ATM, packet over SONET, and frame relay
3. Physical deployment challenges
4. Traffic engineering - transitioning from using IGP metrics to using MPLS constraint based routing and traffic engineering
   disclaimer - we are just now here, we expect to be significantly into deployment by 5/23
5. Experiences and observations