MPLS

the true advantage of mpls in an SP is its abilities like TE , VPNS ...

- on many platforms label based offers performance but not cisco
- routers performing mpls are called lsr
- we use mpls to support many other apps : ip forwading(uni multi) ; TE ; l2 vpns
and l3 vpns .
only ospf and is is supprt te , autoconfig
Labels exchange : lDP (ip forwading) mpbgp (vpn) rsvp (te)
mpls label : 20bit label / 3bit exp / 1bit bos / 8bit ttl : lsr doesnt look at the
ip . the layer 3 might not be ip at all . so we need this ttl field.
- A router can create an IMP null label for its local routes .
- when a router receives a packet with a label , i should look in the lfib , to
prevent this , the label is removed before being sent .
- pHP is turn by default on cisco routers , but there is some case like qos , it
requires to be off .
- use case of mpls : ip ipv6 uni multi ; te ; differentiated qos ; l2 and l3 vpn
- there can be many labels as needed , no limit
- ipv4 and v6 forwading is needed to support other apps .
- fec : te , qos . in case of ip forwading , a cef is a ip destination
- multicast is supported with PIM

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l2vpn:
- offers a more traditional WAN connection ( old layer 2)
- encapsulation can be the same or different on each end
- no layer 3 connection with SP .
- can be point to point (EoMPLS) ; VPLS (multipoint)

l3vpn:
- offered customer WAN services ; sometimes used in enterprise cores .
- customer routes are learned from the ce routers : bgp is the most common
- ospf and eigrp have different loop prevention in VPNs .
- from the SP perspective , BGP is simple . Customers can used managed CE .
- customers routes are kept isolated : on PE with VRFS , on the core with vpn label
. customers can use any ip address , even overlapping .
- optimal traffic delivery is possible due to learning of customer routes
- SP can choose to offer central services VPNs

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TE:
- allows routers to choose a different path based on bandwidth , media type , flow
priority instead of IGP metrics .TE requires to have visibility t entire topology
so requires a link state IGP with extensions (carry extra info , like circuit info
like bandwidth consumption) .
- A TE tunnel is created and is unidirectional . RSVP is used as the control plane
for tunnel establishement and tunnel label
- Used to map the traffic to the network
- Allows links to be utilized that wouldnt normally be used : helps the end user
experience , saves the SP money .
- Traffic tunnels can bump lesser priority tunnels . (TE can be used with QOs)
- TE is only beneficial when there are underutilized ressources availible ; not
replacement for qos . solve long term issues
- other ways but not fit in SP : source based routing , static route , PBR .
TE uses tunnels , so TE has to be done only on the ingress router

- MPLS uses RSVP to exchange labels . These labels are used to create a LSP known
as TE tunnel.
- The tunnel is based on CSPF . two parallels tunnels , use different labels
-Tunnels can be rerouted if needed due to traffic or failures , so a new lsp will
be created.
- You should direct the traffoc into the tunnels ( traffic strearing)
- ospf and is is ext carries info such as availible bandwidth ; it directs traffic
to the TE tunnels , implements cspf
- cspf takes into account : infos in the TE database , constratints or policies put
in place by the network engineer . without policies , there in no difference with
regular routing
- TE LSP : headend lsr : start of tunnel (most work) ; tailend : end of tunnel ;
midpoint lsr : any router in the middle .
- tunnels can be based on ingress , egress point , class of service .
- inside an SP , far more likeky a star topology

-There are 6 TE processes : information distribution ; path selection ; path setup

, Admission control , traffic steering : static route , policy route , auto route
(most used ) , path maintenance
-2 major attributes : link ressource : max bandwidth , max reservable bandwidth ,
link ressource class , cspf specific metric
; traffic tunnel : ingress and egress points ; characteristics of traffic flow
(bandwidth;latency;precedence) , class of data

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QOS:
- includes : packet classification ; congestion management , congetion avoidance.
- LDP is used to propagate different labels for different classes
- Traffic can also be marked with the EXP bits .

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LDP:
rfc 3036
- can use tdp and ldp both at the same time .
- the RID should be manually configured . #mpls ldp router-id <interface_name>
- on XR it can default to the ## global router ID ## .
- TCP session open by the lsr with the highest RID

- initialization message : label dist_ method , keepA time ; fault tolerant tlv .
These parameters include the LDP version, label distribution mode, Keepalive timer
value, maximum packet data unit (PDU) length, and label space

- session protection prevents ldp reconvergence : configured for all neighbors or

limited by an ACL . disabled by default . default duration is 24 hours
#mpls ldp session protection (targeted hello , all interfaces , direction)

- Graceful restart helps data plane remains intact in the event control plane has
an issue .
- it allows the recovery of control plane with out affecting the data plane . works
same as with routinng protocols (nsf/sso)
#mpls ldp graceful-restart <timers>
- if it is not recoverd in time , it wil be removed ; if it recovers , the stale
info is used while the db is resynchronized .
- NSR makes route processors failures invisible to routing peers
#nsr (in ldp config)

- IGP sync / ldp sync (ospf-is is )

- ldp can be configured manually : precise admin control , could be error prone .
autoconfig is supportted only with ospf and is is . in ospf you can enable it per
area .
(downstream unsolicited)
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