Implementing MPLS

▪ Describe the MPLS label

▪ Explain how an IP packet is forwarded using MPLS label switching
▪ Describe the MPLS label stack
▪ Scaling BGP in Service Provider Networks
▪ Label Distribution Protocol
▪ Implementing MPLS in the SP Core
▪ Describe MPLS support for Unicast IP routing
▪ Describe MPLS support for VPNs
▪ Introducing VPNs
▪ VPN Models
MPLS
▪ Provides an intermediate encapsulation between an OSI Layer 3 IP header and an arbitrary OSI Layer 2
header
▪ Can also encapsulate a non-IP payload

▪ Bases forwarding on a label, regardless of the payload

▪ Result:

▪ Different protocols can be used to determine the path.

▪ Different payloads can be used to provide different services.

▪ Any traditional telco service or a functional equivalent can be implemented in an MPLS-enabled

environment.
▪ MPLS technology enhances IP routing and Cisco Express Forwarding switching in service provider core
networks.
▪ Switching mechanism where packets are switched is based on labels:

▪ Labels usually correspond to destination IP networks.

▪ Only the routers on the edge of the MPLS domain perform routing lookup.

▪ An additional header, called the MPLS label, is inserted and used for MPLS switching.
▪ Decreases forwarding overhead on core routers

▪ Can support forwarding of non-IP protocols

▪ Enhances BGP routing

▪ Supports multiple applications:

▪ Unicast and multicast IP routing

▪ VPN

▪ Traffic engineering (TE)

▪ QoS

▪ AToM
▪ Label Switch Routers (LSR) forward packets based on labels and swap labels:

▪ The last LSR in the path also removes the label and forwards the IP packet.

▪ Edge LSR:

▪ Labels IP packets (imposes label) and forwards them into the MPLS domain

▪ Forwards IP packets out of the MPLS domain

▪ A sequence of labels to reach a destination is called an LSP.

▪ FIB is used to forward unlabeled IP packets or to label packets if a next-hop label is available.

▪ LFIB is used to forward labeled packets. The received label is swapped by the next-hop label.
▪ MPLS router functionality is divided into control plane and data plane.
▪ MPLS uses a 32-bit label header that is inserted between Layer 2 and Layer 3:

▪ 20-bit label

▪ 3-bit experimental field

▪ 1-bit bottom-of-stack indicator

▪ 8-bit Time-to-Live field

▪ MPLS can be used regardless of the Layer 2 protocol.

▪ Usually only one label is assigned to a packet, but multiple labels in a label stack are supported.

▪ These scenarios may produce more than one label:

▪ MPLS VPNs (two labels): The top label points to the egress router and the second label identifies
the VPN.
▪ MPLS TE (two or more labels): The top label points to the endpoint of the traffic engineering
tunnel and the second label points to the destination.
▪ MPLS VPNs combined with MPLS TE (three or more labels)
▪ The outer label is used for switching the packet in the MPLS network (points to the TE destination).

▪ Inner labels are used to separate packets at egress points (point to an egress router and identify a
VPN).
MPLS Apps
• MPLS is already used in many different applications:

• Unicast IP routing

• Multicast IP routing

• MPLS TE

• QoS

• MPLS VPNs:

• Layer 2 MPLS VPNs

• Layer 3 MPLS VPNs

▪ Basic MPLS service supports unicast IP routing.

▪ MPLS unicast IP routing provides enhancement over traditional IP routing.

▪ It has the ability to use labels for packet forwarding:

▪ The FEC corresponds to a destination address stored in the IP routing table.

▪ Label-based forwarding provides greater efficiency.

▪ Labels support connection-oriented services.

▪ It has the capability to carry a stack of labels assigned to a packet:

▪ Label stacks allow implementation of enhanced applications.

▪ MPLS can also support multicast IP routing:

▪ A dedicated protocol is not needed to support multicast traffic across an MPLS domain.

▪ Cisco Protocol Independent Multicast Version 2 with extensions for MPLS is used to propagate
routing information and labels.
▪ The FEC is equal to a destination multicast address that is stored in the multicast routing table.
▪ MPLS VPNs are highly scalable and support IP services:

▪ Multicast

▪ QoS

▪ Telephony support within a VPN

▪ Centralized services, including content and web hosting to a VPN

▪ Networks are learned via an IGP from a customer or via BGP from other MPLS backbone routers.

▪ Labels are propagated via MP-BGP. Two labels are used:

▪ The top label points to the egress router.

▪ The second label identifies the outgoing interface on the egress router or a routing table where
a routing lookup is performed.
▪ FEC is equivalent to a VPN site descriptor or VPN routing table.
▪ Customers connect to service provider via IP.

▪ Service provider uses MPLS to forward packets between edge routers.

▪ Service provider enables any-to-any connectivity between sites belonging to the same VPN.

▪ Service provider uses virtual routers to isolate customer routing information.

▪ Customers can use any addressing inside their VPN.

▪ Service provider enables any-to-any connectivity between VPN sites.

▪ All or selected sites have access to the central VPN.

▪ Customers can use any addressing inside their VPNs.

▪ Customers must use nonoverlapping addresses to access the central VPN.

▪ Usage scenarios:

▪ Internet access

▪ Centralized management of managed customer devices

▪ IP telephony

▪ IPTV
▪ Two topologies:

▪ Point to point

▪ Point to multipoint

▪ Two implementations:

▪ Same Layer 2 encapsulation on both ends

▪ Any-to-any interworking (translation from one Layer 2 encapsulation to another)

▪ Point-to-point Layer 2 virtual circuits across MPLS

▪ No need for IP peering and routing configuration

▪ Point-to-point Ethernet over MPLS

▪ Two modes of operation:

▪ Port mode: Entire Ethernet frames are encapsulated into an MPLS LSP.

▪ VLAN mode: Selected VLANs are extracted and encapsulated into dedicated MPLS LSPs.
▪ VPLS

▪ Multipoint Ethernet over MPLS

▪ MPLS network is like a virtual switch.

▪ MPLS TE supports constraint-based routing.

▪ MPLS TE enables the network administrator to:

▪ Control traffic flow in the network

▪ Reduce congestion in the network

▪ Make best use of network resources

▪ MPLS TE requires OSPF or ISIS with extensions to hold the entire network topology in their databases.

▪ OSPF and IS-IS should also have some additional information about network resources and constraints.

▪ RSVP is used to establish TE tunnels and to propagate labels.

▪ Redundant networks may experience unequal load in their network.

▪ It is difficult to optimize resource utilization using routing protocols with default destination-based
routing.
▪ MPLS TE tunnels are used to enable traffic flow across any path.
▪ MPLS QoS provides differentiated types of service across an MPLS network.

▪ MPLS QoS offers capability:

▪ Packet classification

▪ Congestion avoidance

▪ Congestion management

▪ MPLS QoS is an extension to unicast IP routing that provides differentiated services.

▪ Extensions to LDP are used to propagate different labels for different classes.

▪ The FEC is a combination of a destination network and a class of service.

▪ Traditional ISP provided Internet access, while traditional Telco provided VPN services.

▪ Modern service providers provide Internet access, VPN, telephony and QoS using IP and MPLS.

▪ Cisco IP NGN is the next-generation service provider architecture for providing voice, video, mobile,
and cloud or managed services to users.
▪ The SONET standard is mainly used in the United States, while the SDH standard is mainly European.

▪ Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) is a technology that multiplexes a number of optical carrier
signals into a single optical fiber by using different wavelengths of laser light.
▪ IP over DWDM (IPoDWDM) is a technology that integrates DWDM on routers.

▪ IEEE 802.3ba is part of the 802.3 family of data link layer standards for Ethernet LAN and WAN
applications, whose objective is to support speeds faster than 10 Gb/s.
▪ Traditional service provider architecture was based on numerous parallel services with a simple,
stable SDH core.
▪ Traditional IP routing forwards packets based on the destination IP address.
▪ MPLS enables the forwarding of packets through label-switched paths that can be created using
various methods and protocols, depending on the required results.
▪ MPLS switches packets based on label lookup instead of IP address lookup. Labels usually correspond
to destination IP networks.
▪ MPLS is very useful in service provider (and large enterprise) networks because it enhances BGP
routing and provides different services and applications.
▪ In an MPLS domain, there are two types of routers: LSRs and edge LSRs.

▪ The control plane builds a routing table that is based on the routing protocol.

▪ The data plane takes care of forwarding, based on either destination addresses or labels.

▪ The data plane on an MPLS-enabled router consists of two forwarding structures: FIB and LFIB.

▪ Control plane on an MPLS-enabled router usually uses link-state routing protocol to exchange IP
prefixes and LDP to exchange MPLS labels.
▪ An MPLS label is a 4-byte identifier that is used for making forwarding decisions.

▪ If an MPLS-enabled router receives a labeled packet, the router performs LFIB lookup.
▪ MPLS allows multiple labels in a label stack to be inserted in a IP packet.

▪ MPLS is used in many applications: IP routing, MPLS VPNs, MPLS TE, and QoS.

▪ One of the significant enhancements of unicast MPLS routing over IP routing is the capability to carry
a stack of labels assigned to a packet.
▪ Multicast IP routing can also use MPLS. Cisco Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) version 2 with
extensions for MPLS is used to propagate routing information and labels.
▪ MPLS supports highly scalable VPN services.

▪ The main characteristic of Layer 3 MPLS VPNs is that a customer transparently connects his networks
through a service provider network via IP.
▪ Layer 2 MPLS VPNs enable service providers to offer point-to-point or multipoint Layer 2 connections
between distant customer sites.
▪ MPLS TE supports constraint-based routing, in which the path for a traffic flow is the shortest path
that meets the resource requirements of the traffic flow.
▪ MPLS QoS provides differentiated types of service across an MPLS network.

▪ MPLS application may use different protocols at control and data plane.
Scaling BGP in
Service Provider
Networks
▪ Show the Cisco IP NGN infrastructure layer

▪ Describe the common interior (OSPF and IS-IS) and exterior (BGP) routing protocols used in service
provider networks
▪ Describe BGP and IGP route propagation in service provider networks

▪ Describe BGP route exchange with upstream service providers

▪ Describe how customer routes are learned using BGP or static routing

▪ Describe the BGP next-hop-self option

▪ Describe proper scaling of BGP in service provider networks

▪ Describe proper IP address scaling in service provider networks

▪ Describe the BGP policy accounting feature and configuration

• Route propagation focuses on the IP infrastructure layer of the Cisco IP NGN.

• Route propagation focuses on the core and edge devices of the service provider and on customer edge devices.
▪ Runs BGP or static routing with
customer
▪ Exchanges routes with upstream service
providers via BGP
▪ Runs full-mesh IBGP between its own
BGP routers (unless MPLS, BGP
reflectors, or BGP confederations are
used)
▪ Runs one instance of IGP (OSPF or IS-IS)

▪ IGP used for internal routes only

▪ PE routers use EBGP or static routing with CE routers.

▪ PE and P routers use full-mesh IBGP routing.

▪ The provider core IGP is a single instance of IS-IS or OSPF and is used only within the service provider
core network.
▪ Optimal routing between PEs is desired.
▪ BGP route propagation:

▪ BGP carries other service provider routes.

▪ BGP carries customer routes.

▪ IGP route propagation:

▪ IGP is responsible only for the resolution of BGP next hop and internal routes.

▪ Do not redistribute BGP into IGP:

▪ IGP performance and convergence time suffer if a large number of routes are carried.

▪ No IGP is capable of carrying full Internet routes.

▪ A full Internet IPv4 routing table has exceeded +890K routes.

▪ A full Internet IPv6 routing table has exceeded +130K routes.

▪ BGP is used to exchange routing information with upstream service providers:

▪ Service provider sends summary of SP-owned address space to upstream service provider.

▪ Service provider sends prefixes owned by customers using independent address space.

▪ Upstream service provider sends full Internet routing table to the service provider.
▪ BGP with customer:

▪ Customer advertises its address space.

▪ Service provider advertises default route, service provider-owned routes and default route, or
full Internet routing table.
▪ Static routing with customer:

▪ Customer uses default route.

▪ Service provider uses static route on the PE router for customer address space. Static route is
redistributed into BGP on the PE router.
▪ next-hop-self on the PE routers removes the need to include access links in IGP, and thus prevents
route flapping if access link flaps.
▪ The service provider core IGP should carry information only about core links and loopback addresses.
▪ BGP policy scaling:

▪ The AS routing policy should be uniform and easy to maintain.

▪ This goal is achieved by reusing the same configuration in all EBGP routers.

▪ IBGP scaling:

▪ Full-mesh IBGP is not needed since there are other technologies and features available.

▪ Updates and table size scaling:

▪ Route summarization is the key to scalability.

▪ Internal IP addressing in service provider core network can be simplified to reduce public IP addresses
usage and simplify configuration:
▪ IPv4:

▪ Private or public IP addresses can be used.

▪ Private addresses on core links and loopbacks display private IP addresses in a traceroute when
run from customers.
▪ MPLS with TTL propagation disabled solves the traceroute issue.

▪ Private addresses on loopbacks and core links call for careful external routing to prevent
advertisement of private addresses to customers or upstream service providers.
▪ Otherwise, use public addresses in service provider core networks.

▪ IPv6:

▪ On the core links, only link-local IPv6 addresses (FE80::/10) can be used.

▪ On the loopback interfaces, public IPv6 address should be used.

▪ There are no traceroute issues, because transit IPv6-enabled router will always respond
from loopback interface.
▪ Measures and classifies IP traffic that is sent to, or received from, different peers.

▪ Accounts for traffic according to the route that it traverses.

▪ Routes are classified and traffic is measured based on BGP communities, AS number, or AS path.

▪ Based on the classification policy, BGP policy accounting assigns each prefix a traffic index
(bucket).
▪ BGP policy accounting can be applied in ingress or egress direction on an interface, where the traffic
source IP address, the destination IP address, or both are BGP prefixes.
▪ Used for:

▪ Billing for the traffic routing from customers

▪ Examining and improving design of BGP peering and BGP routing policies

▪ Supported for IPv4 only.

▪ Displays assigned traffic index for a prefix

▪ Displays per-interface traffic statistics

▪ Route propagation focuses on the IP infrastructure layer of the Cisco IP NGN

▪ Service providers most commonly use integrated IS-IS and OSPF as interior gateway protocols and BGP
as the exterior gateway protocol
▪ BGP is used to carry customer routes while IGPs are used to carry service provider internal prefix
reachability information
▪ BGP allows ISP clients to acquire information about all or some networks reachable through the ISP

▪ Static routing or BGP can be used by the ISP to direct traffic going to the customers to the correct
links
▪ Next-hop-self can be used to avoid redistributing transit segments into IGP on iBGP neighbors

▪ When BGP networks grow, various actions must be taken to make them scalable, for iBGP scalability
use route reflectors or confederations
▪ When IP networks grow, several aspects of addressing need to be considered to reduce sizes of
routing tables and to avoid consuming too many addresses
▪ BGP accounting feature can be used when an overview of BGP’s use of resources or detailed
statistical analysis are required
Label Distribution
Protocol
▪ Describe LDP is the protocol used to exchange the MPLS labels

▪ Describe how LDP neighbor adjacency is established

▪ Describe the LDP Link Hello Message

▪ Describe the LDP Session Negotiation

▪ Describe the use of the LDP Targeted Hello Message to form LDP neighbor adjaceny between non
directly connected LSRs
▪ Describe LDP Session Protection using a backup targeted hello

▪ Describe LDP Graceful Restart and NonStop Routing (NSR)

▪ Describe how the forwarding structures used by MPLS are populated

▪ Explain the LSP

▪ Explain the MPLS Label Allocation and Distribution process

▪ Show how IP packets are propagated across an MPLS domain

▪ Define the steady state condition when all the labels are exchanged by LDP and the LIBs, LFIBs and
FIBs are completely populated
▪ Explain Label Advertisement Control and Label Acceptance Control

▪ Explain the how IP Aggregation in the core can break an LSP into two segments

▪ Describe loop detection using the MPLS TTL field

▪ Describe the disabling of TTL propagation to hide the core routers in the MPLS domain

▪ Show a steady state condition in the MPLS domain

▪ Show how a link failure is managed in an MPLS domain

▪ Show how a link recovery is managed in an MPLS domain

▪ Describe the three IP switching mechanisms (Process Switching, Fast Switching and Cisco Express
Forwarding)
▪ Explain the sequence of events that occurs when process switching and fast switching are used for
destinations that are learned through BGP
▪ Explain the sequence of events that occurs when CEF switching is used for destinations that are
learned through BGP
▪ Describe CEF on Cisco IOS XE and Cisco IOS XR platforms

▪ Describe the show commands used to monitor CEF operations

▪ MPLS introduces a label field that is used for forwarding decisions.

▪ Although labels are locally significant, they must be advertised to directly reachable peers.

▪ Option 1 is to include this parameter in existing IP routing protocols.

▪ Option 2 is to create a new protocol to exchange labels.

▪ The second option has been used, because there are too many existing IP routing protocols that would
have to be modified to carry labels.
▪ The new protocol is called Label Distribution Protocol (LDP).
• LDP establishes a session in two steps:

• Hello messages are periodically sent on all MPLS-enabled interfaces.

• MPLS-enabled routers respond to received hello messages by attempting to establish a session with the
source of the hello messages.
• An LDP link hello message is a UDP packet that is sent to the “all routers on this subnet” multicast address
(224.0.0.2 or FF02::2).
• TCP is used to establish the session.

• Both TCP and UDP use well-known LDP port number 646.
• An LDP session between two neighbors is established from the router with the higher IP address
▪ LDP neighbor discovery of nonadjacent neighbors differs from normal discovery only in the addressing
of hello packets:
▪ Hello packets use unicast IP addresses instead of multicast addresses.

▪ When a neighbor is discovered, the mechanism to establish a session is the same

▪ When a link comes up, IP converges earlier and much faster than MPLS LDP:

▪ This may result in MPLS traffic loss until MPLS convergence.

▪ The LDP session protection minimizes traffic loss, provides faster convergence, and protects existing
LDP (link) sessions.
▪ Backup targeted hellos maintain LDP sessions when primary link adjacencies go down.
▪ LDP graceful restart provides a control plane mechanism to ensure high availability and allows
detection and recovery from failure conditions while preserving NSF services.
▪ Graceful restart recovers from control plane failures without impacting forwarding.

▪ Without LDP graceful restart, when an established session fails, the corresponding forwarding states
are cleaned immediately from the restarting and peer nodes:
▪ In this example, LDP forwarding restarts from the beginning, causing a potential loss of data and
connectivity.
▪ LDP NSR functionality makes failures, such as RP failover, invisible to routing peers with minimal to
no disruption of convergence performance.
▪ LDP NSR does not require protocol extensions and does not force software upgrades on other routers
in the network.
▪ An LSP is a sequence of LSRs that forwards labeled packets of a certain forwarding equivalence class.

▪ MPLS unicast IP forwarding builds LSPs based on the output of IP routing protocols.

▪ LDP advertises labels only for individual segments in the LSP.

▪ LSPs are unidirectional.

▪ Return traffic uses a different LSP (usually the reverse path because most routing protocols
provide symmetrical routing).
▪ An LSP can take a different path from the one chosen by an IP routing protocol (MPLS TE).

The IP routing protocol determines the path.

▪ Label allocation and distribution in a MPLS network follows these steps:

1. IP routing protocols build the IP routing table.

2. Each LSR assigns a label to every destination in the IP routing table independently.
3. LSRs announce their assigned labels to all other LSRs.
4. Every LSR builds its LIB, LFIB, and FIB data structures based on received labels.
▪ Each router generates a label for each network in a routing table:

▪ Labels have local significance.

▪ Label allocation is asynchronous.

▪ For path discovery and loop avoidance, LDP relies on routing protocols.

▪ Networks originating on the outside of the MPLS domain are not assigned any label on the edge LSR;
instead, the POP label is advertised.
▪ A router that receives a label from a next hop also stores the label in the FIB.
▪ A router stores a label from a neighbor, even if the neighbor is not a next hop for a destination.
▪ Networks originating on the outside of the MPLS domain are not assigned any label on the edge LSR;
instead, the POP label is advertised.
PHP optimizes MPLS performance by eliminating one LFIB lookup on router D.
PHP optimizes MPLS performance by eliminating one LFIB lookup on router D.
▪ A router that receives a label from a next hop also stores the label in the FIB.
▪ Steady state occurs after the LSRs have exchanged the labels and the LIB, LFIB, and FIB data
structures are completely populated.
▪ Routing protocol neighbors and LDP neighbors are lost after a link failure.

▪ Entries are removed from various data structures.

▪ Routing protocols rebuild the IP routing table and the IP forwarding table.
▪ The LFIB and labeling information in the FIB are rebuilt immediately after the routing protocol
convergence, based on labels stored in the LIB.
▪ The Cisco IOS platform supports three IP switching mechanisms:

▪ Routing table-driven switching—process switching

▪ Full lookup for every packet

▪ Cache-driven switching—fast switching

▪ Most recent destinations entered in the cache

▪ First packet always process-switched

▪ Topology-driven switching

▪ Cisco Express Forwarding (prebuilt FIB table)

▪ Cisco IOS XE Software:

▪ Label switching requires that Cisco Express Forwarding be enabled on the router.

▪ Cisco Express Forwarding requires a software image that includes Cisco Express Forwarding and
IP routing enabled on the device.
▪ Cisco Express Forwarding is enabled by default on the Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services
Routers.

▪ Reveals if Cisco Express Forwarding is enabled by default on your platform.

▪ If not, enable it with ip cef command.

▪ Cisco IOS XR Software:

▪ Label switching on a Cisco router requires that Cisco Express Forwarding be enabled.

▪ Cisco Express Forwarding is mandatory for Cisco IOS XR software, and it does not need to be enabled
explicitly.
▪ Cisco Express Forwarding offers these benefits:

▪ Improved performance

▪ Scalability

▪ Resilience
MPLS apps in a
SP environment
MPLS Apps
• MPLS is already used in many different applications:

• Unicast IP routing

• Multicast IP routing

• MPLS TE

• QoS

• MPLS VPNs:

• Layer 2 MPLS VPNs

• Layer 3 MPLS VPNs

Implementing MPLS
in the SP Core
▪ Describe MPLS configuration difference in Cisco IOS XR vs Cisco IOS/IOS XE

▪ Describe mandatory and optional MPLS configuration tasks

▪ Explain a basic MPLS configuration

▪ Describe the MTU requirements on a label switching router interface

▪ Explain the configuration used to increase the MPLS MTU size on a label switching router interface

▪ Explain IP TTL Propagation

▪ Explain the configuration used to disable IP TTL Propagation

▪ Explain LDP Session Protection Configuration

▪ Explain LDP Graceful Restart and NSR Configuration

▪ Explain LDP IGP Synchronization Configuration

▪ Explain how to enable LDP Autoconfiguration

▪ Explain Label Advertisement Control Configuration

▪ Describe the show commands used to monitor MPLS operations

▪ Describe the MPLS and LDP debug commands

▪ Describe the Classic Ping and Traceroute operations

▪ Describe the MPLS Ping and Traceroute operations

▪ Describe how to troubleshoot common MPLS issues

▪ Cisco IOS XR Software:

▪ MPLS forwarding is enabled when you enable LDP on an interface under MPLS LDP configuration
mode.
▪ Cisco Express Forwarding is mandatory for Cisco IOS XR Software, and it does not need to be
enabled explicitly.
▪ Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software:

▪ MPLS forwarding is enabled when you enable MPLS on an interface under interface configuration
mode.
▪ Cisco Express Forwarding is enabled by default on most Cisco IOS and Cisco IOS XE platforms,
including the Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers.
▪ Mandatory:

▪ Enable LDP on an interface under MPLS LDP configuration mode (Cisco IOS XR Software).

▪ Enable MPLS on an interface under interface configuration mode (Cisco IOS and Cisco IOS XE
Software).
▪ Optional:

▪ Configure the MPLS Router ID.

▪ Configure MTU size for labeled packets.

▪ Configure IP TTL propagation.

▪ Configure conditional label advertising.

▪ Configure access lists to prevent customers from running LDP with PE routers.
• Label switching increases the maximum MTU requirements on an interface because of the additional label
header.
• Interface MTU is automatically increased on WAN interfaces;
IP MTU is automatically decreased on LAN interfaces.
• Label-switching MTU can be increased on LAN interfaces (resulting in jumbo frames) to prevent IP
fragmentation.
• Jumbo frames must be enabled on the switch.

• Jumbo frames are not supported by all LAN switches.

▪ By default, IP TTL is copied into the MPLS label at label imposition, and the MPLS label TTL is copied
(back) into the IP TTL at label removal.
▪ IP TTL and label TTL propagation can be disabled.

▪ TTL value of 255 is inserted into the label header.

▪ The TTL propagation must be disabled on ingress and egress edge LSRs.
▪ The LDP session protection feature keeps the LDP peer session up by means of targeted discovery
following the loss of link discovery with a peer.
▪ LDP initiates backup targeted hellos automatically for neighbors for which primary link adjacencies
already exist.
▪ Use the LDP graceful restart capability to achieve nonstop forwarding (NSF) during an LDP control
plane communication failure or restart.
▪ To configure graceful restart between two peers, enable LDP graceful restart on both label switching
routers.
▪ Graceful restart is a way to recover from signaling and control plane failures without impacting
forwarding.
▪ Lack of synchronization between LDP and IGP can cause MPLS traffic loss.

▪ LDP IGP synchronization synchronizes LDP and IGP so that IGP advertises links with regular metrics
only when MPLS LDP is converged on that link:
▪ At least one LDP session is operating on the link; for this link, LDP has sent its applicable label
bindings and has received at least one label binding from the peer.
LIB table of P1 before label advertisement control is configured:

LIB table of P1 after label advertisement control is configured:

Displays LDP parameters on the local router

Displays MPLS status on individual interfaces

Displays all discovered LDP neighbors

Displays individual LDP neighbors

Displays more details about LDP neighbors

Displays LIB table

Displays contents of LFIB table
Displays contents of FIB table
Debugs LDP adjacencies, session establishment, and label bindings exchange

Debugs labeled packets switched by the router

Classic ping and traceroute can be used to test connectivity:
• Inside the MPLS core for core prefix reachability
• PE-to-PE for VPN prefix reachability
• CE-to-CE for VPN prefix reachability
Broken LSPs may not always be revealed:
• Broken LSPs revert back to IP forwarding.
• Ping and traceroute succeed.
Cisco IOS Software does encode MPLS information
in ICMP replies.
Even multiple paths can sometimes be detected.
▪ Designed for monitoring and troubleshooting MPLS LSPs

▪ Encapsulates UDP requests directly into selected LSP

▪ More choices in generating requests:

▪ Exp field, TTL, reply mode, output interface, and so on

▪ Explicit null label usage

▪ Not subject to TTL propagation disabling

▪ More information in replies:

▪ Labels, interfaces, many other LSP diagnostic details

▪ Can be used to monitor:

▪ LDP LSPs

▪ MPLS TE tunnel LSPs

▪ Layer-2 MPLS VPN LSPs

▪ UDP request generated for selected LSP

▪ Uses two UDP (port 3503) messages

▪ MPLS echo request

▪ MPLS echo reply

▪ Labeled packet with IP (UDP) payload

▪ Source address: Routable address sender

▪ Destination address: Random from 127/8

▪ Destination port: 3503

▪ TTL: 255
• Labels and MTU can be determined using MPLS traceroute.
• Detailed error information is retrieved upon failure somewhere in the path.
▪ The LDP session does not start.

▪ Labels are not allocated.

▪ Labels are not distributed.

▪ Packets are not labeled, although the labels have been distributed.

▪ MPLS intermittently breaks after an interface failure.

▪ Large packets are not propagated across the network.

▪ Symptom:

▪ LDP neighbors are not discovered.

▪ The show mpls ldp discovery command does not display the expected LDP neighbors.

▪ Diagnosis:

▪ MPLS is not enabled on the adjacent router.

▪ Verification:

▪ Verify with the show mpls interface command on the adjacent router.
▪ Symptom:

▪ LDP neighbors are discovered; the LDP session is not established.

▪ The show mpls ldp neighbor command does not display a neighbor in operational state.

▪ Diagnosis:

▪ The connectivity between loopback interfaces is broken; the LDP session is usually established
between loopback interfaces of adjacent LSRs.
▪ Verification:

▪ Verify connectivity with the extended ping command.

▪ Symptom:

▪ Labels are allocated, but not distributed.

▪ Using the show mpls ldp bindings command on the adjacent LSR does not display labels from
this LSR.
▪ Diagnosis:

▪ There are problems with conditional label distribution.

▪ Verification:

▪ Debug label distribution with the debug mpls ldp advertisements command.

▪ Examine the neighbor LDP router IP address with the show mpls ldp discovery command.

▪ Verify that the neighbor LDP router IP address is matched by the access list specified in the mpls
ldp label advertise command.
▪ Symptom:

▪ The overall MPLS connectivity in a router intermittently breaks after an interface failure.

▪ Diagnosis:

▪ The IP address of a physical interface is used for the LDP identifier. Configure a loopback
interface on the router.
▪ Verification:

▪ Verify the local LDP identifier with the show mpls ldp neighbors command.
▪ Symptom:

▪ Large packets are not propagated across the network.

▪ Use of the extended ping command with varying packet sizes fails for packet sizes almost to
1500 packets.
▪ In some cases, MPLS might work, but MPLS VPN will fail.

▪ Diagnosis:

▪ There are label MTU issues or switches that do not support jumbo frames in the forwarding path.

▪ Verification:

▪ Issue the traceroute command through the forwarding path; identify all LAN segments in the
path.
▪ Verify the label MTU setting on routers attached to LAN segments.

▪ Check for low-end switches in the transit path.

▪ On Cisco IOS XR platforms, MPLS is enabled by enabling LDP on each interface. On Cisco IOS and IOS
XE platforms, MPLS is enabled on each interface.
▪ It is recommended to manually set the router ID.

▪ To enable MPLS on the Cisco IOS XR router, first enter MPLS LDP configuration mode and then list the
interfaces.
▪ Label switching increases the maximum MTU requirements on an interface, because of the additional
label header.
▪ To configure the maximum packet size or MTU size on an MPLS interface, use the mpls mtu command
in interface configuration mode.
▪ By default, IP TTL is copied into the MPLS label at label imposition, and the MPLS label TTL is copied
into the IP TTL at label removal.
▪ If TTL propagation is disabled, the TTL value is not copied into the label header. Instead, the label
TTL field is set to 255.
▪ When LDP session protection is configured, LDP initiates backup targeted hellos automatically for
neighbors for which primary link adjacencies already exist.
▪ Graceful restart is a way to recover from signaling and control plane failures without impacting
forwarding.
▪ LDP IGP synchronization synchronizes LDP and IGP so that IGP advertises links with regular metrics
only when MPLS LDP is converged on that link.
▪ To enable LDP on many interfaces, IGP autoconfiguration allows you to automatically configure LDP
on all interfaces that are associated with a specified OSPF or IS-IS interface.
▪ LDP outbound label filtering performs outbound filtering for local label advertisement, for one or
more prefixes, to one or more peers.
▪ You can use various show commands to monitor MPLS.

▪ When debugging MPLS and LDP in production environments, use the debug commands with extreme
cautions.
▪ Standard ping and traceroute tools can be used in MPLS environments to test reachability.

▪ Special MPLS ping and MPLS traceroute were designed for monitoring and troubleshooting MPLS LSPs.

▪ If an LDP session does not come up, verify if MPLS is enabled on the neighboring router.