Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Computing Methodologies and Communication (ICCMC 2018)

IEEE Conference Record # 42656; IEEE Xplore ISBN:978-1-5386-3452-3

Design and Simulation of Traffic Engineering using

MPLS in GNS3 Environment
Mohd. Imran, Mohd Amir Khan, Mohammed Abdul Qadeer
Department of Computer Engineering
Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh-202002, India
{mohd.imran, maqadeer}@zhcet.ac.in, [email protected]

Abstract ---Traffic engineering[1] is one of the best In order of handling such a problem, the network designer
solution of IP routing when the routes are overloaded. came up with the idea of Tag switching[4]. This technology
Generally the router uses the shortest path solution from was first introduced by one of the leading network designer
source to destination, so if at the same time all routers are company of its time CISCO. It was then further processed
looking for shortest path, their might be possibility of and formalized as MPLS i.e. Multiprotocol Label
overloading and delay. So MPLS not just rely on shortest Switching[5]. The terms tag and label are synonymous to
path. It utilized the underutilized paths, when all shortest each other.
paths are over utilized. The main objective of this work is
to simulate the workings of MPLS with Traffic The key idea is labeling of each packet when it is injected
Engineering[2] in a network and to perform analysis of into network. After a packet is labeled, the routing is
the advantages provided by MPLS as opposed to other performed across the network using a label forwarding table
commonly used network protocols. Additional objective is or in other words Label Forwarding Instance based. The
to assimilate exhaustive information on MPLS basics and another notable thing here is that the network still depend on
fundamentals which helps beginners. Also, simulation of the basic routing protocol for trafficking of the packets
IP, ATM, FR etc based networks forms a part of the from source to destination using traditional routing
additional targets of this article. We have used GNS3 protocols like OSPF, EIGRP or BGP for internetwork[6].
Simulator and Cisco 2691 Router iso image.
The MPLS is an integration of framework for packet
Keywords— MPLS, OVERLAY MODELING ATM, transfer by using an added advantages of labeling. In this
BGP, IGP, IS-IS, OSPF procedure, the formation of IP routing table is similar in
manner as always with another routing table at network
I. Introduction layer with added layer of labeling. Hence separating the
traffic which is not provided by IP without setting up VPN`s
In last decades numerous technologies have been unearthed on an individual system.
for the understanding of network traffic in both the If we insight of the operating layer of MPLS, it seems that
termination as well as transmission of the network traffic neither it is working in layer 2 of TCP/IP for e.g. ATM,
form source to destination. Some of the most commonly relay, Ethernet nor on layer 3 of the same protocol but it
used technologies includes ATM (Asynchronous Transfer switched in between. Because of this nature, it is also called
Mode)[3], PPP, Ethernet and frame relay etc. The listed as layer 2.5 protocol.
network technology has their own pros and cons which
make them effective in traffic routing but what made it Construction of routing table is same mostly similar to other
complicated is internetwork routing of traffic. Besides their routing with added advantageous layer of label forwarding
effective capabilities, the companies also have to make a which enhances the routing speed of packets equipped with
trade-off between performance and cost of the actual label nos. Hence a traffic segregation is performed by
implementation of network design. So the technologies MPLS which is absent in other routing protocols like IP
which have been listed above can be taken as a solution of routing.
the arising problem; for example in order to connect various
offices of the same company, one might configure VPN The MPLS[7] is a layer 2.5 protocol which means that it
between various offices or one can purchase a dedicated works in between data link layer and network layer which
lease line at premium cost. enhances forwarding of packet in more reliable way. Some
of the data link protocols are ATM. relay, Ethernet and in
layer 3, IP as well as IPv6 fit in. So at 2.5 layer, MPLS

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 Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Computing Methodologies and Communication (ICCMC 2018)
IEEE Conference Record # 42656; IEEE Xplore ISBN:978-1-5386-3452-3

performs its function by adding additional header indicating

labels which is attached to each packet. B. Necessity of MPLS

LDP[8] aka label distribution protocol is also utilized by the Network flow across network is an exhaustive task[13]. In
MPLS traffic protocol. Which works when a network is not order to maintain a trade-off between routing cost,
running in BGP in order to distribute labels. Generally when bandwidth requirement, and better resource utilization, the
BGP protocol is in inactive mode or not running, advertises only promising solution is traffic engineering. It is an
labels within protocols. But the main problem is that it is not optimal solution to provide a better framework for ISPs in
supported by natively protocol likewise IGP protocol, terms of latency and delay.
OSPF, EIGRP etc.
Traffic engineering[1] is an alternative approach over
The organization of the rest of paper contains various overlay modeling. This model is currently used by some of
section where section II gives briefing of MPLS traffic service providers. The overlay model is used by layer 2
engineering and its importance as well as necessity in switching in terms of transmission of packets across
modern networking. Section III describes the design and network[14]. In such type of model, the connecting routers
implementation of traffic engineering[9] on GNS3 on the network is able to view only virtual topology.
Simulator using Cisco 2691 Router iso image. Simulation Besides all of facilities provided by overlay modeling, it
results and analysis is described in section IV. Conclusion also have some flaws which is overcame by traffic
of the MPLS simulation is contained in section V. engineering. Traffic engineering need not to run a separate
network and also it also removes the requirement for the
non-scalable[15], fully interconnected mesh network.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
MPLS traffic engineering has the following features[12]:
A. MPLS Traffic Engineering
➢ MPLS packet forwarding over Multihop Label-
The basic of networking is to transfer the packets between Switched path (LSP).
endpoints also known as source and destination. The ➢ Understanding of better network topology and
tendency of any routing protocol is finding always the least better resource utilization.
distance path to travel with lower cost generated[10][11]. In ➢ capability of determining the link bandwidth and
some network. In exploration of possibility for finding the traffic flow strength by creating separate account
least cost path, it also leads to recurrence of traffic within for such parameter
network. ➢ The network adaptation mechanism is fully
Such a scenario can be tackled by using TE aka traffic automated and dynamic in nature, which makes
engineering[12]. IGP protocols like EIGRP etc. collects the reduced possibility of network failure.
blueprint of the network topology and hence determines the
all the available path lead to source to destination from
various hop counts i.e. availability of resources. III. DESIGN & IMPLEMENTATION

A. Characteristics of MPLS The MPLS can be designed using a network simulator

which consists of agents and a classifier. In MPLS an agent
a. Enhanced transmission capacity work as an entity that sends/receives the data packets while
b. act as a backbone for service providers on other hand classifier classified the received data packets.
c. Enhanced protocols for mapping the packet for In order to realize the MPLS, Label switching is used.
efficient network flow
d. MPLS packet labeling
e. Effective utilization of available resources by
determining the used resources in traffic flow
f. Constraint-based routing
g. promising bandwidth, media and priority
implementation across network
h. Adaptation capability in case of node failure
i. acts as mediator between layer 2 and layer 3
protocol, hence named layer 2.5 protocol
Fig 1 Architecture of MPLS node for Label Switching

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 Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Computing Methodologies and Communication (ICCMC 2018)
IEEE Conference Record # 42656; IEEE Xplore ISBN:978-1-5386-3452-3

The MPLS node labeling architecture consists of two tables

for label forwarding
a. Partial forwarding table
b. Label information base

The partial forwarding table PFT is a mapping table for IP

packet to LSP, and consists of PHB (Per-Hop-Behavior),
FEC and LIB pointer. After the establishment of LSP, each
table has its own meaningful information. For instance ERB
consists of information about ER-LSP`s. Fig 1. Shows the
architecture of MPLS node. In This arrangement, when the
MPLS controller receives the packet, PFT table is activated.
The packet can be either labeled or unlabeled. If the packet
is unlabeled, the MPLS Classifier checks for the PFT entry.
It uses packets FEC information as an index into the PFT
table. In case of labeled packet entry, MPLS classifier
checks LIB entry for the incoming packet. b. Configuration Router R1

Simulation

For the simulation of MPLS network traffic engineering, we

have used the GNS3 simulator. This is a great graphical
network tool enriched with multiple for feature for
performing the simulation of network engineering protocols
like BGP. EIGRP, OSPF etc.

Figure 2: GNS3 Simulator

IV. SIMULATION RESULTS

a. Network Design
Similarly all the routers are configured in the same manner.
c. Verifying MPLS

978-1-5386-3452-3/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 1028

Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Computing Methodologies and Communication (ICCMC 2018)
IEEE Conference Record # 42656; IEEE Xplore ISBN:978-1-5386-3452-3

d. Verifying MPLS Traffic Engineering

Figure 1: mpls forwarding-table

Figure 5: mpls traffic-eng tunnels; 1n router R1: Tunnel from R1 to R2

Figure 2: mpls ldp neighbor detail

Figure 6: mpls traffic-eng tunnels; in router R12: Tunnel from R12 to R4

V. CONCLUSION

In this paper we have performed simulation of various

network topology protocol like IS-IS, OSPF and tunneling
using GNS3 simulation environment. We have learnt various
cisco command for configuration and implementation of
MPLS traffic engineering which is a revolutionary technology
which enhances the adaptation capability of traffic flow
across the network. In general, existing network topologies
Figure 3: mpls interfaces determines the shortest path from source to destination by
calculating the distance. But some time the lowest path is
overloaded; hence network flow is affected. The MPLS
reduced the possibility of routing overloading by added extra
layer of packet labeling. Hence the underutilized resources
are now fully optimized. MPLS TE is applicable in ISP
maintenance, router only networks and also those networks
where virtual circuits are used as an interconnection
between routers.

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Figure 4: mpls ldp bindings International Conference on Wireless Communications, Signal

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 Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Computing Methodologies and Communication (ICCMC 2018)
IEEE Conference Record # 42656; IEEE Xplore ISBN:978-1-5386-3452-3

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