Interaction With Fresh

Engineers
About
Nepal Telecom Exam Preparation
(Level 7)

Shiva Khanal
Senior Engineer , Nepal Telecom
Development Department
Central office, Bhadrakali Plaza
Multiprotocol Label
Switching (MPLS)
 MPLS:
An introduction

● Emulate some property of circuit-switching

network over a packet network,
IP Layer ● Strike a happy middle ground between
extreme connection-oriented switching and
pure connectionless routing service
● We wanted to process the multimedia
MPLS packets in the same routing path in a
Pp uniform fashion in order to guarantee
quality of service (QoS)
Ethernet, Frame Relay, ● Because headers in those related packets
ATM, PPP are the same or similar because those
related packets in a stream desire
Physical Layer consistent and similar processing
treatment
● MPLS follows the same idea for a
sequence of correlated IP packets
 Conventional routing versus
MPLS
● In a traditional, connectionless network, every router runs a layer-
3 routing Algorithm
● Each router along the path makes an independent forwarding
decision for that packet
● Using information contained in the packet header, as well as
information obtained from the routing algorithm, the router
chooses a “next hop” destination for the packet
● In an IP network, this process involves matching the destination
address stored in the IP header of each packet with the most
specific route obtained from the IP routing table
● This activity occurs at every node along the end-to-end path
● Processor-intensive
● In an MPLS environment, optimum paths through the network are
identified in advance
 Conventional routing versus
MPLS
● In an MPLS environment, conventional layer-3 routing (IP routing)
is used to determine a path through the network.
● After the path is determined, data packets are then switched
through each node as they traverse the network
● As data packets enter the MPLS network, ingress devices use
information in the layer-3 header to assign the packets to one of
the predetermined paths
● This assignment is used to append a label referencing the end-to-
end path into the packet
● The label accompanies the data packet as it traverses the
network.
● Subsequent routers along the path use the information in the
label to determine the next hop device
● Because these devices only manipulate information in the label
● Processor-intensive analysis and classification of the layer-3
header occurs only at the ingress point
 Benefits
● Reducing the processing requirements on devices in the
core of the network
● Traffic engineering
○ Process of selecting network paths
○ Conventional routing algorithms – may be unbalanced
utilization
○ Balanced utilization of resources
● Quality of service routing
○ QoS routing - ability to choose a route for a particular data
stream
○ So that the path provides a desired level of service
○ Levels of service can specify acceptable levels of bandwidth,
delay, or packet loss in the network
● Multiprotocol support
● Provides support for existing network-layer protocols, including
IPv4, IPv6, IPX, and AppleTalk
● The standard also provides link layer support for Ethernet, token
 Forwarding equivalency class
(FEC)

● An FEC is a group of layer-3 packets that are forwarded in the

same manner.
● All packets in this group follow the same network path and have
the same prioritization.
● Packets within an FEC can have different layer-3 header
information.
● However, to simply make a forwarding decision, these packets
are indistinguishable.
● Common examples of FEC groups are:
○ A set of packets that have the same most specific route in the
IP routing table.
○ A set of packets that have the same most specific route in the
IP routing table and the same IP type of service setting.
● In an MPLS network, an FEC is identified by a label.
 Label and labeled packet
● A label identifies a unique FEC.
● MPLS devices forward all identically labelled packets in the same
way.
● A label is locally significant between a pair of MPLS devices.
● It represents an agreement between the two devices describing
the mapping between a label and an FEC.
● The MPLS label can be located at different positions in the data
frame, depending on the layer-2 technology used for transport.
● If the layer-2 technology supports a label field, the MPLS label is
encapsulated in the native label field.
● In an ATM network, the VPI/VCI fields can be used to store an
MPLS label.
● Similarly, the DLCI field can be used to store an MPLS label in
frame relay networks.
 Label and labeled packet
● If the layer-2 technology does not natively support a label, the
MPLS label resides in an encapsulation header appended
specifically for this purpose.
● The header is located between the layer-2 header and the IP
header.
● This use of a dedicated header permits MPLS service over any
layer-2 technology

32-bit MPLS header

 Label and labeled packet

The contents of the MPLS header include:

● A label field that contains the value of the MPLS label.
● A CoS field that can be used to affect the queuing and discard
algorithms applied to the packet as it traverses the network.
● A S (stack) field that supports a hierarchical label stack.
● A TTL (time-to-live) field that supports conventional IP TTL
functionality.

A labelled packet is a packet into which a label has been encoded.

To support enhanced MPLS functions, the packet might contain
more than one label. This is known as a label stack. The stack
establishes an ordered relationship between individual labels. The
stack is implemented using the last-in, first-out model.
Encapsulation
MPLS Operation
 MPLS Terminology
● Label stack router (LSR): A label stack router is an MPLS node
that is also capable of forwarding native layer-3 packets. There
are two important types of LSRs in an MPLS network:
○ An ingress node connects the MPLS network with a node
that does not execute MPLS functionality
○ An egress node connects the MPLS network with a node that
does not execute MPLS functionality.
○ The egress node handles traffic as it leaves the MPLS
network.
● Next hop label forwarding entry (NHLFE): An NHLFE is used
by an MPLS node to forward packets.
● Incoming label map (ILM): The ILM is used by an MPLS node to
forward labelled packets.
● FEC-to-NHLFE map (FTN): The FTN is used by an MPLS node
to process packets that arrive unlabeled, but need to be labelled
before forwarding.
 MPLS Terminology
● Label swapping: Label swapping is the process used by an
MPLS node to forward a data packet to the next hop device.
● Label switched path (LSP): An LSP represents a set of MPLS
nodes traversed by packets belonging to a specific FEC. The set
is an ordered, unidirectional list.
● Label stack and label hierarchies: A labelled packet can
contain more than one label. The labels are maintained in a last-
in, first-out stack. The stack implements an ordered hierarchy
among the set of labels.
 Generalized Multiprotocol Label
Switching (GMPLS)
● GMPLS extends MPLS into new transmission network types (for
example, to include optical networks).
● GMPLS extends the MPLS protocol so that it can control not only
routers, but also:
– Dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) systems
– Add drop multiplexers
– Optical cross-connects
– Optical switches
● GMPLS extends MPLS to layer-1 optical transmissions. It
combines IP and optical control planes such that routers, packet
switches, and optical switches are aware of each other.
 Layer 3 Switches

● Layer 3 switching is a relatively new term, which has been

extended by a numerous vendors to describe their products.
● For example, one school uses this term to describe fast IP routing
via hardware, while another school uses it to describe Multi
Protocol Over ATM (MPOA).
● Actually Layer 3 switches are superfast routers that do Layer 3
forwarding in hardware.
● Most of the Layer 3 switches today perform IP switching at the
hardware level and forward the other protocols at Layer 2 (that is,
bridge them).
 Router Vs L3 Switch
Technically, the differences are:
● 1- L3 Switch do switching at layer 3 by preserving the source
and destination MAC and preserving the TTL value of the IP
header of the 1st routed packet, so the first packet is routed using
normal routing lookup, but after that all packet are switched.
● 2- router do normal routing lookup, but by introducing fast
switching and CEF, packets are also now switched on a router.
● 3- Switches doesn’t support some QoS features.
● 4- Switches doesn’t support NAT.
● 5- The forwarding on switches is done on ASIC (Application
Specific Integrated Circuits) which is done in hardware rather
than a software.
● 6- Forwarding on routers are done in a software.
● 7- router supports different WAN technologies (modules) unlike
switches.
 Router Vs L3 Switch
● The major difference between the packet switching operation of
a router and that of a Layer 3 switch is the physical
implementation.
● In general-purpose routers, packet switching takes place using
software which runs on a microprocessor, whereas a Layer 3
switch performs this using dedicated application-specific
integrated circuit (ASIC) hardware.
Thanks