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WhatisMPLS?
Category:CCIE,CCIESP,CCNPSP,CiscoCertification,MPLS,NetworkCertifications
Author:gokhankosem,on23May112Comments

WhatisMPLS?
MPLS is a packetforwarding technology which uses labels for data forwarding decisions.Over time,
usersinnetworkshaveincreasedandthisbigtraffichasbrougthighbandwidthandforwardingspeed
need.The existing routing protocols was looking to the routing table for forwarding decision on all
nodesandthiswasoverloadingtheroutersandcausealotoftimelose.HereMPLSbringsCEFbeside
andthisbypasstheslowpartofthislayer3decisions.Besidethatitbringsthespeedofosilayer2
swithing.Inbrief,MPLSiscombiningthebenefitialpartsofbothlayer2andlayer3ofosireference
model.

Inadditiontothisnegativefacts,thereweresomeotherproblemsaboutATMwhileworkingtogether
with Ethernet and Frame Relay. To solve all these problems IETF developed MPLS in 1997. This
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development could be done with existing routing protocols. But changing all the existing routing
protocolswereverydifficult,soIETFchoosedevelopinganewprotocol.

This new protocol is using labels for routing decisions. These labels are router specific and local
significanttothatrouter.

MPLSBenefits

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Combinethebenefitialpartsoflayer2andlayer3ofOSImodel.
Decreasetheroutersload,providespeedandperformanceincrement.
ProvideeasymanagableVPNdefinitionsbetweenedgedevices.
Withtrafficengineering,providesmanagementofthetraffic.
SimplifiestheIPforwardingoverATMdevices.

MPLSHeader
ForMPLS,anheaderisaddedbetweenlayer2andlayer3header.Thisheaderis32bitlong.
Theheadercontentis20bitlabelvalue,3bitexperimentelvalue,onebitbottomofstackvalue
and8bitTimetoLivevalue.

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Label value is local significant for the router and used for label swicthing.Experimental field is
usedasClassofServiceforQoS.Onebitbottomofstackvalueshowsthatifthislabelvalueis
the last label in packet or not(1 shows that it is the last). Finally the TTL value used for loop
protectionlikeotherIPpackets.Heretobemoreclearly,Ishowedtheseonebitfieldsdifferent
valuesbelow.

Tobemoreclearlyandmorenearofrealworld,wecanexamineMPLSheaderwiththebelow
capture example. In this example MPLS header is shown with blue rectangle.As you can see
MPLSheaderisbetweenthelayer2header(ethernetIIheader)andlayer3header.

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MPLSTerms
TherearesometermsusedinMPLSthatwillfacilitatetounderstandMPLSconcept.Imentioned
thesetermsclearlybelow.

RouterTerms
Firstly I want to talk about router terms used in MPLS. These terms are, customer router,
customer edge router, provider router and provider edge router . The below shape is clearly
explainthelocationoftheserouters.

Additiontotheseterms,weuseLSR(Labelswithingrouter)andEdgeLSRtermsforanyrouter
capableoflabelswitching.Sohere,ProutersarealsocalledLSRandPEroutersarealsocalled
EdgeLSR.ForspecificallyedgeLSRscanbedividedtwoasingressandegressedgeLSRs.The
belowshapeshowsthisclearly:

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LSP(LabelSwitchingPath)
LabelSwitchingPathisavirtualpaththatthedatatransmissiondoneonit.Itisalabelseries
thatbelongstotheroutersfromsourcethroughdestination.ThebelowshapeshowsLSP:

FEC(ForwardingEquivalanceClass)
Thistermisusedforthegroupofpacketsthatareforwardedbasedonthesamemanner,over
thesmaepathandwiththesameforwardingtreatment.

LabelDistributionProtocols
There are two protocol for label distribution.One is a general standard LDP(Label Distribution
Protocol).TheotheroneisaCiscoproprietartprotocolcalledTDP(TagDistributionProtocol).

TablesusedwithMPLS
TherearefourtypetablethatisrelatedtoMPLS.ThistablesareformedwithCEF(CiscoExpress
Forwarding)mechanismandtheLabelDistributionProtocols.

RIB(RoutingInformationBase)
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Itistheclassicalroutingtableoftherouter.Thistablecontainstheclassicroutinginformations
aboutthedestinationnetwork.

FIB(ForwardingInformationBase)
ItisformedfromRIBbyCEFtoacceleraterouteforwardingprocess.

LIB(LabelInformationBase)
Itisthetablethatisformedbythelabeldistributionprotocolanditcontaisallthelabelsknown
byanLSR.Itcontainsthelabel,LSRandnetworkinformation.

LFIB(LabelForwardingInformationBase)
It is the routing database for labeled packets.I determines how the incoming label will be
forwardedtothenexthop.

ControlPlaneveDataPlane
MPLSworksintwodifferentblocksinRouters.Theseblocksarecontrolplaneanddataplane.

ControlPlane
Control plane is the block that the layer 3 routing protocols are work and the routing
informationisstoredhere.Besidethat,protocolslikethatRSVPandLDPworkshere.

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DataPlane
Data plane is the block that forwards the label based data. Data plane do this with the
table(LIB)storedincontrolplane.

ThefollowingpicturesofLSRandEdgeLSRwillexplainthecontrolplaneanddataplanemore
clearly.Herebothcontrolplaneanddataplaneareshownbesidetheirrelatedtables.

YOUCANREACHALLTHEMPLSARTICLESANDCONFIGURATIONSBELOW
MPLSBasics
WhatisMPLS?
EnablingMPLSonCiscoRouter

MPLSLabelDistributionProtocol,LDP
MPLSLabelDistributionProtocol,LDPPart1
MPLSLabelDistributionProtocol,LDPPart2
MPLSLabelDistributionProtocol,LDPPart3(ConfigurationonALU)
MPLSLabelDistributionProtocol,LDPPart4(ECMP)
MPLSLabelDistributionProtocol,LDPPart5(ExportandImportPolicy,PrefixAggregation)
MPLSLabelDistributionProtocol,LDPPart6(TLDP)

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MPLSLabelDistributionProtocol,LDPPart7(CRLDP)

MPLS,RSVPTE
MPLS,RSVPTEPart1
MPLS,RSVPTEPart2(AlcatelLucentConfiguration)

MPLSProtectionAndRestoration
MPLSProtectionandRestorationPart1
MPLSProtectionandRestorationPart2(EndtoEndProtection,SecondaryPaths)
MPLSProtectionandRestorationPart3(PathDiversityinSecondaryPaths)
MPLSProtectionandRestorationPart4(LocalProtection,FastReroute)
MPLSProtectionandRestorationPart5(FastRerouteProtectionTypes)

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