Chapter 3. Information Distribution

From Chapter 1, “Understanding Traffic Engineering with MPLS,” you understand the basic motivation behind MPLS Traffic Engineering. From Chapter 2, “MPLS Forwarding Basics,” you understand label switching—how it works and how it's related to IP routing and switching.

But how does MPLS Traffic Engineering really work? What are the underlying protocols, and how do they all tie together? And, most importantly, what do you need to type on your router to make all this wonderful stuff come to life?

The answers to these questions can be broken down into three pieces:

  • Information distribution— How routers know what the network looks like and what resources are available.

  • Path calculation and setup— How routers decide ...

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