MPLS Fundamentals

MPLS Fundamentals

by Luc De Ghein - CCIE No. 1897
Released November 2006
Publisher(s): Cisco Press
ISBN: 1587051974

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

A comprehensive introduction to all facets of MPLS theory and practice

  • Helps networking professionals choose the suitable MPLS application and design for their network

  • Provides MPLS theory and relates to basic IOS configuration examples

  • The Fundamentals Series from Cisco Press launches the basis to readers for understanding the purpose, application, and management of technologies

MPLS has emerged as the new networking layer for service providers throughout the world. For many service providers and enterprises MPLS is a way of delivering new applications on their IP networks, while consolidating data and voice networks. MPLS has grown to be the new default network layer for service providers and is finding its way into enterprise networks as well. This book focuses on the building blocks of MPLS (architecture, forwarding packets, LDP, MPLS and QoS, CEF, etc.). This book also reviews the different MPLS applications (MPLS VPN, MPLS Traffic Engineering, Carrying IPv6 over MPLS, AToM, VPLS, MPLS OAM
etc.).
You will get a comprehensive overview of all the aspects of MPLS, including the building blocks, its applications, troubleshooting and a perspective on the future of MPLS.

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
    1. Dedication
  2. About the Author
  3. About the Technical Reviewers
  4. Acknowledgments
  5. Icons Used in This Book
    1. Command Syntax Conventions
  6. Introduction
    1. Goals and Methods
    2. Who Should Read This Book?
    3. How This Book Is Organized
    4. About the Cisco Press Website for This Book
  7. Fundamentals of MPLS
    1. The Evolution of MPLS
      1. Definition of MPLS
      2. Pre-MPLS Protocols
      3. Benefits of MPLS
      4. History of MPLS in Cisco IOS
      5. Summary
      6. Chapter Review Questions
    2. MPLS Architecture
      1. Introducing MPLS Labels
      2. MPLS and the OSI Reference Model
      3. Label Switch Router
      4. Label Switched Path
      5. Forwarding Equivalence Class
      6. Label Distribution
      7. Label Distribution with LDP
      8. Label Forwarding Instance Base
      9. MPLS Payload
      10. MPLS Label Spaces
      11. Different MPLS Modes
      12. Summary
      13. Chapter Review Questions
    3. Forwarding Labeled Packets
      1. Forwarding of Labeled Packets
      2. Reserved Labels
      3. Unreserved Labels
      4. TTL Behavior of Labeled Packets
      5. MPLS MTU
      6. Fragmentation of MPLS Packets
      7. Path MTU Discovery
      8. Summary
      9. Chapter Review Questions
    4. Label Distribution Protocol
      1. LDP Overview
      2. LDP Operation
      3. Targeted LDP Session
      4. LDP Authentication
      5. Controlling the Advertisement of Labels via LDP
      6. MPLS LDP Inbound Label Binding Filtering
      7. LDP Autoconfiguration
      8. MPLS LDP-IGP Synchronization
      9. MPLS LDP Session Protection
      10. Summary
      11. Chapter Review Questions
    5. MPLS and ATM Architecture
      1. Brief Introduction to ATM
      2. Label Encoding
      3. Label Advertisement
      4. LDP for LC-ATM
      5. Aggregate Labels
      6. VC-Merge
      7. Non MPLS-Aware ATM Switches
      8. Label Switch Controller
      9. Multi-Virtual Circuit Tagged Bit Rate
      10. Frame Mode ATM
      11. Reducing the Number of LVCs
      12. Summary
      13. Chapter Review Questions
    6. Cisco Express Forwarding
      1. Overview of Cisco IOS Switching Methods
      2. Why Is CEF Needed in MPLS Networks?
      3. What Are the Components of CEF?
      4. Operation of CEF
      5. Distributed CEF (DCEF)
      6. CEF Switching Packets in Hardware
      7. Load Balancing in CEF
      8. Unequal Cost Load Balancing
      9. Labeling IP Packets by CEF
      10. Load Balancing Labeled Packets
      11. Troubleshooting CEF
      12. Summary
      13. Chapter Review Questions
  8. Advanced MPLS Topics
    1. MPLS VPN
      1. Introduction to MPLS VPN
      2. Architectural Overview of MPLS VPN
      3. BGP
      4. Packet Forwarding
      5. PE-CE Routing Protocols
      6. IS-IS
      7. Hub-and-Spoke
      8. SOO
      9. VRF Access
      10. Internet Access
      11. Multi-VRF CE
      12. CE Management
      13. Summary
      14. Chapter Review Questions
    2. MPLS Traffic Engineering
      1. The Need for MPLS TE
      2. Overview of the Operation of MPLS TE
      3. Distribution of TE Information
      4. Routing and Cost of a TE LSP
      5. Dual TE Metrics
      6. PCALC
      7. RSVP
      8. Link Manager
      9. FRR
      10. Forwarding Traffic onto MPLS TE Tunnels
      11. MPLS TE and MPLS VPN
      12. Summary
      13. Chapter Review Questions
    3. IPv6 over MPLS
      1. Introduction to IPv6
      2. Carrying IPv6 over an MPLS Backbone
      3. MPLS VPN Network Using IPv6 over IPv4 Tunnels on the CE Routers
      4. Carrying IPv6 over an MPLS Backbone (6PE)
      5. Carrying IPv6 in VPNs Across an MPLS Backbone (6VPE)
      6. Remarks for Both 6PE and 6VPE
      7. Summary
      8. Chapter Review Questions
    4. Any Transport over MPLS
      1. Understanding the Need for AToM
      2. Transporting Layer 2 Frames
      3. AToM Architecture
      4. The Control Word
      5. MPLS MTU in the MPLS Backbone
      6. The Basic AToM Configuration
      7. Transported Layer 2 Protocols
      8. AToM Tunnel Selection
      9. AToM and QoS
      10. Summary
      11. Chapter Review Questions
    5. Virtual Private LAN Service
      1. The Need for VPLS
      2. VPLS Architecture
      3. VPLS Data Plane
      4. VPLS Signaling
      5. The Basic VPLS Configuration
      6. Verifying the VPLS Operation
      7. VPLS and Tunneling Layer 2 Protocols
      8. Trunk Port Between the CE and PE
      9. Hierarchical VPLS
      10. Quality of Service
      11. Limiting MAC Addresses
      12. Routing Peering
      13. Summary
      14. Chapter Review Questions
    6. MPLS and Quality of Service
      1. DiffServ with IP Packets
      2. DiffServ with MPLS Packets
      3. Default MPLS QoS Behavior in Cisco IOS
      4. DiffServ Tunneling Models
      5. Recoloring the Packet
      6. MQC Commands for MPLS QoS
      7. Moving MPLS QoS from the PE to the CE Router
      8. Implementing the DiffServ Tunneling Models in Cisco IOS
      9. The Table-Map Feature
      10. The Use of MPLS QoS for Ethernet over MPLS
      11. Summary
      12. Chapter Review Questions
    7. Troubleshooting MPLS Networks
      1. Label Stack Depth
      2. Verifying Label Switched Path
      3. Tracerouting in MPLS Networks
      4. MPLS MTU
      5. Ping
      6. Debug MPLS Packets
      7. Debugging Load Balancing of Labeled Packets
      8. Verifying MPLS on the Interface
      9. Verifying Number of Bytes Label Switched
      10. MPLS-Aware Netflow
      11. Summary
      12. Chapter Review Questions
    8. MPLS Operation and Maintenance
      1. Requirements of MPLS OAM
      2. Router Alert Option and Router Alert Label
      3. OAM Alert Label
      4. MPLS LSP Ping
      5. MPLS LSP Traceroute
      6. Load Balancing
      7. VCCV
      8. IP Service Level Agreement
      9. Netflow Accounting
      10. SNMP/MIBs
      11. Syslog
      12. Summary
      13. Chapter Review Questions
    9. The Future of MPLS
      1. New MPLS Applications
      2. Work at IETF
      3. The Proliferation of MPLS
      4. Summary
  9. Appendixes
    1. Answers to Chapter Review Questions
      1. Chapter 1
      2. Chapter 2
      3. Chapter 3
      4. Chapter 4
      5. Chapter 5
      6. Chapter 6
      7. Chapter 7
      8. Chapter 8
      9. Chapter 9
      10. Chapter 10
      11. Chapter 11
      12. Chapter 12
      13. Chapter 13
      14. Chapter 14
  10. Index

Product information

  • Title: MPLS Fundamentals
  • Author(s): Luc De Ghein - CCIE No. 1897
  • Release date: November 2006
  • Publisher(s): Cisco Press
  • ISBN: 1587051974