Chapter 2

MPLS Overview

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

Chapter2-1

Objectives
Upon completion of this chapter, you will be able to:
Place MPLS technology within the network. Provide a high-level description of MPLS technology. Identify services provided by MPLS technology. Explain the features and benefits of MPLS technology.
2001, Cisco Systems, Inc. MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-2

Driving Business Forces from Old World to New

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc. MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-3 Chapter2-3

Business Perspective
Businesses are building on IP Businesses need private IP services
IP Intranet IP Extranet

Remote Offices

Customers Suppliers Partners

Telecommuters Mobile Users

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc. MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-4

Virtual Private Networking: A $24 Billion Opportunity

25

IP+ATM Opportunity

Barriers?
6% 5%

20 15 10 5

54% 35%
ATM/FR IP VPNs Managed Svcs Unrealized

0 1998 ATM/FR 2001 Managed Svcs 2004 IP VPNs Total

1998 VPN Service Distribution

Source: CIMI Corp.
2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

Worldwide VPN Service Revenues (Billions of Dollars)

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-5

New World Requirements

Transport Services
Leased line, Frame Relay, ATM (current business processes)

Revenue

IP Connectivity Services
Internet Intranet Extranet

Growth

IP Valued-Added Services
Content hosting Voice
2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

Collaboration Video

Profit

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-6

Customer Perspective
Current Requirements
QoS Privacy

New Requirements
Multiple service classes Multiple service options

Availability
Reliability

ATM, Frame Relay, Private IP, Public IP

Multiple VPN options Lower-cost managed services Any-to-any connectivity Extranets, COINS (Community of Interest Networks) Seamless integration
MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-7

IP/VPN SLA requirements cannot be met with todays technology!

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

The Problem
We cant get there from here using traditional technologies:
ATM or Frame Relay virtual circuits IP tunneling Encryption Network address translation

Why?
Functionality trade-offs Complexity Cost Service degradation
2001, Cisco Systems, Inc. MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-8

The Solution: MPLS

A new paradigm that delivers the best of both worlds: Privacy and QoS of ATM and Frame Relay Flexibility and scalability of IP Foundation for IP business services: Flexible grouping of users and value-added services Low-cost managed IP services: Scalabilitysmall to large private networks
2001, Cisco Systems, Inc. MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-9

MPLS: New Industry Standard for Carrier Networks

What is it?
Multiprotocol Label Switching Emerging IETF industry standard Based on Ciscos tag switching

How does it work?

Forwards packets based on labels Packets are switched, not routed Labels represent destination and service attributes (CoS, PrivacyVPNs, traffic engineering) Multiple mechanisms for assigning and distribution labels (Tag Distribution Protocol, Label Distribution Protocol, Resource Reservation Protocol, Border Gateway Protocol Version 4)
2001, Cisco Systems, Inc. MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-10

MPLS: The First Complete IP Solution

Any-to-Any Connectivity Leased Lines Frame Relay/ ATM IP User N2 N2
(logical)

Network N2 N2
(logical)

QoS Privacy

Low-Cost Managed Services

N
N

N
N

MPLS

MPLS is the first solution that delivers on all the requirements for New World private IP networks.
2001, Cisco Systems, Inc. MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-11

MPLS Technology Overview

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc. MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-12 Chapter2-12

Why MPLS in the Internet?

Integrate best of Layer 2 and Layer 3
Keep up with growth Reduce operations costs Increase reliability Create foundation for new revenue from advanced IP services

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-13

MPLS Routing Scalability

Internal routing scalability
Limited adjacencies

External routing scalability

Full BGP4 support, with extensions

VC merge for very large networks

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-14

MPLS: End-to-End IP Services over ATM

IP Multicast
RSVP

IP services mapped directly onto ATM R12 switches IP CoS MPLS label to RSVP cell stream Avoids complex translation Full support for IP QoS, VPN, and Traffic Engineering IP Multicast
2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

IP Multicast

R45
IP CoS

IP Multicast

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-15

MPLS and ATM Services

Coexisting on Same Platform
ATM standard services

Private NetworkNetwork Interface / User-Network Interface Signaling Voice trunking Circuit emulation
MPLS Services

MPLS
IP IP

ATM

FR

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

VPN CoS Traffic engineering

ATM

FR

IP

MPLS

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-16

MPLS Across Non-MPLS ATM Networks

Label Switch Router LSR

MPLS Network
ATM Network

ATM VCs are created as needed; virtual channel identifiers are mapped to labels.
2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

Labeled cells are transported in a virtual path

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-17

Benefits of MPLS CoS with ATM

IP QoS over Standard ATM

Allocate resources: Per-individual, edge-to-edge VCs By kbps bandwidth Mesh of VCs to configure Complex error recovery Wasted/inaccessible bandwidth

CoS with MPLS

Allocate resources: Per-class, per-link By % bandwidth No VCs to configure No wasted bandwidth Contained error recovery Simpler to provision and engineer
MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-18

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

A New Paradigm for VPNs

VPN B VPN A VPN C VPN A VPN C

VPN B
intranet VPN A extranet

VPN B VPN C VPN A VPN B VPN C

Overlay VPN
Frame Relay/VC privacy VC-based Frame Relay/ATM aware groups endpoints
2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

MPLS-Based VPNs
Network privacy Network-based (subnets) IP and VPN-aware groups users and services
MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-19

MPLS-Based VPN Benefits

Frame Relay privacy In a connectionless IP network Without tunnels or encryption VPN-aware networks Flexible user and service grouping Multiple COS service classes Scales to large and small VPNs Low-cost managed services No inherent scalability limits Secure Intranets and Extranets Multiple customer memberships Provides Internet access Simplified managed networks No new PVCs to provision No traffic matrix to update No PVC mesh to resize

No routing topology to update

Simpler for the customer No new application paradigms No translation required for private IP addresses No special CPE requirements Simplified routing Support over any access or backbone technology

Standards based
2001, Cisco Systems, Inc. MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-20

A New Paradigm for Managed Networks

Separately engineered customer private IP networks

Vs.

Single-carrier network supporting multiple customer IP VPNs

Build once, sell once

MPLS Network

Build once, sell many

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-21

Lower Operational Cost

Overlay VPN MPLS-Based VPN
LSR

CPE

Update traffic matrix Add (N 1) PVCs for new CPE Resize full PVC mesh Update OSPF design

Configure new CPE Update Edge LSR

Reconfigure each CPE for new Layer 3 topology

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-22

Leveraging Todays IP QoS Solutions

Technology
IP precedence Committed Access Rate (CAR)

Function
Prioritization (in IP header) Indicates service class Packet classification by application, protocol, etc. Sets precedence Bandwidth management: discard or change service class Weighted Random Early Detection Congestion avoidance Service-class enforcement Weighted Fair Queuing Class-based Queuing Queuing policies (e.g. latency) IP +ATM CoS Integration Traffic Engineering

WRED

WFQ, CBQ

MPLS

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-23

MPLS Class of Service

CoS Distinct service classes implemented by network Traffic flows classified Based on Layer 3 Simpler and more efficient than mesh VCs Two methods to indicate service class: IP precedence copied to MPLS header (CoS field) Up to 8 classes can be defined (3 bits) Separate labels used for different service classes
2001, Cisco Systems, Inc. MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-24

Benefits of MPLS CoS

IP CoS over ATM/Frame Relay VPNs
Allocate resources: Per-individual, edge-to-edge VCs By kbps bandwidth

IP CoS with MPLS VPNs

Allocate resources efficiently: Per-class, per-link by % of bandwidth Maximize transport of paid traffic No connections to configure

Mesh of VCs to configure

Wasted/inaccessible bandwidth

Flexibility without added overhead

No wasted bandwidth as with PVCs No call setup overhead as with SVCs

Add traffic engineering

Path route consistency per flow

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-25

Motivations for Traffic Engineering

Link Failure

Economics Failure scenarios

Unanticipated traffic

300 Mbps Traffic Flow 155 Mbps Fiber Link

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-26

MPLS Operation

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-27 Chapter2-27

MPLS Terminology
Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) Label Switch Router (LSR) = Router = ATM Switch + LSC
Edge functions

Label Edge Router = LER

Core Functions

ATM Edge LSR

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc. MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-28

Label Switched Path

Label Distribution Protocol (LDP)
PE10

Edge Functions

PE1

LSP
ATM Edge LSR
2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

Core Functions

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-29

MPLS Labels
Basic MPLS: destination-based unicast Labels divorce forwarding from IP address

Many additional options for assigning labels Labels define destination and service
The key: separation of routing and forwarding
Destinationbased Unicast Routing IP Resource CoS Reservation (RSVP) Multicast Routing (PIM v2) Explicit & Static Routes VPNs

Label Information Base (LIB) Per-Label Forwarding, Queueing and Multicast Mechanisms
2001, Cisco Systems, Inc. MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-30

MPLS Operation
1. Existing routing protocols (e.g., OSPF, IS-IS, BGP) establish reachability to destination networks.

CE
CE PE PE

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-31

MPLS Operation (cont.)

1. Existing routing protocols (e.g., OSPF, IS-IS) establish reachability to destination networks.

2. Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) establishes label-to-destination network mappings.

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-32

MPLS Operation (cont.)

1. Existing routing protocols (e.g., OSPF, IS-IS) establish reachability to destination networks.

2. Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) establishes label-to-destination network mappings.

3. Ingress Edge LSR receives packet, performs Layer 3 valueadded services, and labels packets.
2001, Cisco Systems, Inc. MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-33

MPLS Operation (cont.)

1. Existing routing protocols (e.g., OSPF, IS-IS) establish reachability to destination networks. 2. Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) establishes label-to-destination network mappings.

3. Ingress Edge LSR receives packet, performs Layer 3 value-added services, and labels packets.
2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

4. LSR switches packets using label swapping.

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-34

MPLS Operation (cont.)

1. Existing routing protocols (e.g., OSPF, IS-IS) establish reachability to destination networks. 2. Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) establishes label-to-destination network mappings.

5. Egress LSR removes label and forwards standard IP packet to customer.

3. Ingress Edge LSR receives packet, performs Layer 3 value-added services, and labels packets.
2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

4. LSR switches packets using label swapping.

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-35

Router Example: Distributing Routing Information

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-36

Router Example: Forwarding Packets

Packets are forwarded on the basis of IP address.

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc. MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-37

MPLS Example: Routing Information

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-38

MPLS Example: Assigning Labels

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-39

MPLS Example: Forwarding Packets

LER LSR LER

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-40

MPLS Example: Shared Labels

Prefixes that share a path can share a label.

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-41

MPLS Example: Label Disposition

MPLS Network Egress LER

Removes Label

CE Router

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-42

MPLS Example: Standard IP mode

MPLS Network Egress LER

Deaggregation Point does Layer 3 Lookup

CE Router

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-43

Label Header Packet Media

Label = 20 bits Experimental = Class of Service, 3 bits S = Bottom of Stack, 1 bit TTL = Time to Live, 8 bits

Can be used over Ethernet, 802.3, or PPP links Contains everything needed at forwarding time One word per label
2001, Cisco Systems, Inc. MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-44

Encapsulations

ATM Cell Header

PPP Header (Packet over SONET/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy)
LAN MAC Label Header
2001, Cisco Systems, Inc. MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-45

Labels and ATM

LSR LSR

LDP sets up the LSP. The LVC is created to route the cells. Labels are converted to cells and passed to the ATM network. Labeled cells are transported in a virtual path.

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-46

MPLS Across Non-MPLS ATM Networks

Label Switch Router LSR

MPLS Network
ATM Network

ATM VCs are created as needed; VCIs are mapped to labels.

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

Labeled cells are transported in a virtual path.

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-47

Summary
MPLS is the enabling technology to support New World services.

Significant customer demand for IP+ATM capabilities.

Build oncesell many.

MPLS combines the best features of Layer 2 (ATM) and Layer 3 (IP).

2001, Cisco Systems, Inc.

MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-48

Review Questions (cont.)

1. Why do current (traditional) technologies prove inadequate to deliver New World Services? 2. How do MPLS-forwarded packets carry destination and service attributes such as CoS, VPN, and Traffic Engineering? 3. What MPLS mechanism allows IP services to be mapped easily onto ATM switches?
2001, Cisco Systems, Inc. MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-49

Review Questions (cont.)

4. What type of device is responsible for adding or removing MPLS labels? 5. Which field in the label is used to map the IP precedence bits? 6. What technique is used to translate the packet-based label for an ATM network?
2001, Cisco Systems, Inc. MLSTE 1.0Chapter2-50