Introduction

Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a new packet forwarding protocol approved by IETF in 1997. MPLS switches IP Datagram at layer 2 unlike conventional routing of IP Datagram at layer 3. MPLS improves the overallforwarding speed. Apart from the speed ,MPLS guarantees QoS and provides Traffic Engineering capabilities. Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a data-carrying mechanism in packet-switched networks. It operates at a TCP/IP layer that is generally considered to lie between traditional definitions of Layer 2 (data link layer) and Layer 3 (network layer or IP Layer),and thus is often referred to as a "Layer2.5" protocol. It was designed to provide a unifieddata-carrying service for both circuit-based clients and packet-switching clients,which provide a datagram service model. It can be used to carry many different kinds of traffic, including IP packets, as well as native ATM, SONET ,and Ethernet frames. The Internet has emerged as the network for providing converged, differentiated classed of services to user with optimal use of resources and also to address the issues related to Class of service (CoS) and Quality of Service (QoS).

MPLS is the technology that addresses all the issues in the most efficient manner. MPLS is a packet-forwarding technology thatuses labels to make data forwarding decisions. With MPLS the Layer 3 header analysis (IP header) is done just once (when the packe tenters the MPLS domain).

MPLS Header
MPLS works by prefixing packets with an MPLS header, containing one or more 'labels'. This is called a label stack. Each label stack entry contains four fields: 20-bit label value (This is MPLS Label)

Various function and routers in MPLS

Label: A label identifies the path a packet should traverse and is carried
or encapsulated in a Layer-2 header along with the packet. y The receiving router examines the packet for its label content to determine the next hop. y Once a packet has been labelled, the rest of the journey of the packet through the back bone is based on label switching.

Label Creation : Every entry in routing table (build by the IGP) is

assigned a unique 20-bit label either per platform basis or per interface basis.

SWAP: The Incoming label is replaced by a new Out going label and
the packet is forwarded along the path associated with the new label.

PUSH: A new label is pushed on top of the packet, effectively

"encapsulating" the packet in a layer of MPLS.

POP: The label is removed from the packet effectively "deencapsulating". If the popped label was the last on the label stack, the packet" leaves the MPLS tunnel.

LER: A router that operates at the edge of the access network and
MPLS network LER performs the PUSH and POP functions and is also the interface between access and MPLS network, commonly knowas Edge router.

LSR: An LSR is a high-speed router device in the core of an MPLS

network, normally called Core routers. These routers performs wapping functions and participate in the establishment of LSP.

Ingress/EgressRouters: The routers receiving the incoming traffic or

performing the first PUSH function are ingress routers and routers receiving the terminating traffic or performing the POP function are Egress routers. The routers performing these functions areLER.

FEC: The forward equivalence class (FEC) is a representation of a

group of packets that share the same requirements for their transport. All packets in such a group are provided the same treatment en route to the destination. As opposed to conventiona lIP forwarding, in MPLS, the assignment of a particular packet to a particular FEC is done just once, as the packet enters the network at the edge router

Positions of LERs & LSRs

MPLS performs the following functions

Specifies mechanism to manage traffic flow of various granularities, such as flows between different hardware, machines, or even flows between different applications. Remains independent of the Layer-2 & layer-3 protocols. Provide same a means to map IP addresses to simple, fixed-length labels used by different packet-forwarding and packet-switching technologies. Interfaces to existing routing protocols such as RIP (routing Information protocol), open shortest path first (OSPF), IGRP, ISIS, BGP4, IDRP. Supports IP, ATM, and frame-relay Layer-2 protocols.

Label-Switched Paths - LSPs

A path is established before the data transmission starts. A path is a representation of a FEC. MPLS provides two options to set up an LSP y hop-by-hop routing Each LSR independently selects the next hop for a given FEC. LSRs support any available routing protocols (OSPF, ATM ). y explicit routing Is similar to source routing. The ingress LSR specifies the list of nodes through which the packet traverses. The LSP setup for an FEC is unidirectional. The return traffic must take another LSP.

Label Distribution Protocol (LDP)

The LDP is a protocol for the distribution of label information to LSRs in a MPLS networks. It is used to map FECs to labels, which in turn,create LSP. LDP sessions are established between LDP peers in the MPLS network (not necessarily adjacent).

MPLS Operation
The following steps must be taken for a data packet to travel through an MPLS domain: Label creation and distribution, Table creation at each router, Label-switched path creation, Label insertion/table look up and Packet forwarding. The source sends its data to the destination In an MPLS domain not all of the source traffic is necessarily transported through the same path. Depending on the traffic characteristics, different LSPs could be created for packets with different CoS requirements

Packet forwarding
y LER1 may not have any labels for this packet as it is the first occurrence of this request. In an IP network, it will find the longest address match to find the next hop. Let LSR1 be the next hop for LER1. y LER1 will initiate a label request toward LSR1. y This request will propagate through the network as indicated by the broken green lines y Each intermediary router will receive a label from its downstream router starting from LER4 and going upstream till LER1. y All these routers will update their LIB table for this FEC. y The LSP setup is indicated by the broken blue lines using LDP or any other signaling protocol. y LER1 will insert the label and forward the packet to LSR1.

Each subsequent LSR, i.e., LSR2 and LSR3, will examine the label in the received packet, replace it with the outgoing label and forward it. y When the packet reaches LER4, it will remove the label because the packet is departing from an MPLS domain and deliver it to the destination. y The actual data path followed by the packet is indicated by the broken red lines.

Packet Traversing a Label-Switched Path

MPLS Applications
y MPLS uses traffic-engineered path set up and helps achieve service-level guarantees. y MPLS incorporates provisions for constraint-based and explicit path setup. y Supports network scalability. y MPLS can be used to avoid the N2 overlay problem associated with meshed IPATM networks. y Integrates IP and ATM in the network. y MPLS provides a bridge between access IP and core ATM. y MPLS can reuse existing router/ATM switch hardware, effectively joining the two disparate networks. y Builds inter operable networks. y MPLS is a standards-based solution that achieves synergy between IP and ATM networks. y MPLS facilitates IPoversynchronous optical network(SONET) integration in optical switching. y MPLS helps build scalable VPN swith traffic-engineering capability.