Implementing MPLS in the Service

Provider Core
Multiprotocol Label Switching

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-1
Objectives
• 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
© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-2
Objectives (Cont.)
• 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

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-3
MPLS Configuration
• 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.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-4
MPLS Configuration Tasks
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.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-5
Basic MPLS Configuration
IP
MPLS/IP
CE1 PE1 P1 P2 PE2 CE2
Gi0/0/0/0 Gi0/0/0/1 Gi0/0/0/1 Gi0/1
Gi0/0/0/1 Gi0/0/0/0 Gi0/0/0/0 Gi0/0

List interfaces that Enable MPLS under interface

should be enabled configuration mode.
IOS XR Enter MPLS LDP
IOS XE
for MPLS.
mpls ldp configuration mode. interface GigabitEthernet0/0
interface GigabitEthernet0/0/0/0 mpls ip
router-id 10.1.1.1 Specify interfaces interface GigabitEthernet0/1
! for determining ip access-group NO_LDP in
ipv4 access-list NO_LDP deny tcp !
the LDP router ID.
any any eq 646 mpls ldp router-id 10.2.1.1
! !
interface GigabitEthernet0/0/0/1 ip access-list extended NO_LDP
ipv4 access-group NO_LDP ingress deny tcp any any eq 646
permit ip any any

Prevent customers from running LDP with a PE

Prevent customers from running LDP
router.
with a PE router.
© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-6
Label Switching MTU
• 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.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-7
Label Switching MTU Configuration

IP
MPLS/IP
CE1 PE1 P1 P2 PE2 CE2
Gi0/0/0/0 Gi0/0/0/1 Gi0/0/0/1 Gi0/1
Gi0/0/0/1 Gi0/0/0/0 Gi0/0/0/0 Gi0/0

IOS XR IOS XE
interface GigabitEthernet0/0/0/0 interface GigabitEthernet0/0
mpls mtu 1512 mpls ip
! mpls mtu 1512
interface GigabitEthernet0/0/0/1
mpls mtu 1512 MPLS MTU is increased to 1512 on all
LAN interfaces to support 1500-byte IP
Increases MPLS MTU value packets and MPLS stacks up to 3
levels deep.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-8
IP TTL Propagation
• 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.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-9
IP TTL Propagation

IP
MPLS/IP
CE1 PE1 P1 P2 PE2 CE2
Gi0/0/0/0 Gi0/0/0/1 Gi0/0/0/1 Gi0/1
Gi0/0/0/1 Gi0/0/0/0 Gi0/0/0/0 Gi0/0

CE1# traceroute CE2

Type escape sequence to abort.

Tracing the route to CE2
The traceroute command, executed on a
1 PE1 4 msec 0 msec 0 msec customer router, displays all routers in the
2 P1 0 msec 4 msec 0 msec path.
3 P2 0 msec 4 msec 0 msec
4 PE2 0 msec 0 msec 0 msec
5 CE2 4 msec * 0 msec

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-10
Disabling IP TTL Propagation
IP
MPLS/IP
CE1 PE1 P1 P2 PE2 CE2
Gi0/0/0/0 Gi0/0/0/1 Gi0/0/0/1 Gi0/1
Gi0/0/0/1 Gi0/0/0/0 Gi0/0/0/0 Gi0/0

mpls ip-ttl-propagate disable forwarded

PE1# traceroute CE2

CE1# traceroute CE2 Type escape sequence to abort.

Tracing the route to CE2
Type escape sequence to abort.
Tracing the route to CE2 1 P1 0 msec 4 msec 0 msec
1 P2 0 msec 4 msec 0 msec
1 PE1 4 msec 0 msec 0 msec 3 PE2 0 msec 0 msec 0 msec
2 PE2 0 msec 0 msec 0 msec 4 CE2 4 msec * 0 msec
3 CE2 4 msec * 0 msec
The traceroute command, executed on a
The traceroute command, executed on a service provider router, displays all routers in
customer router, hides routers P1 and P2. the path.
© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-11
LDP Session Protection Configuration
R2

Targeted
R1 R3
Traffic Hello
Primary Link
X
Link Hello
Session
IOS XR
Enables LDP
mpls ldp session protection
session protection
feature

• 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.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-12
LDP Graceful Restart and NSR Configuration
R1 R2

Enables LDP IOS XR

nonstop routing Configures an existing
mpls ldp session for graceful restart
graceful-restart
nsr

• 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.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-13
Configuring LDP IGP Synchronization
R1 R2

Enables LDP IGP

Enables LDP IGP IOS XR synchronization
synchronization router isis 100
IOS XR
interface POS 0/2/0/0
router ospf 1 address-family ipv4 unicast
mpls ldp sync mpls ldp sync
!

• 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.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-14
Configuring LDP Autoconfiguration
R1 R2

Enables IGP autoconfiguration Enables IGP autoconfiguration

globally for a specified OSPF in a defined area with a
process name specified OSPF process name
IOS XR IOS XR
router ospf 100 router ospf 100
mpls ldp auto-config area 0
area 0 mpls ldp auto-config
interface pos 1/1/1/1 interface pos 1/1/1/1

• With IGP autoconfiguration, you can automatically configure LDP on all

interfaces that are associated with a specified IGP interface.
• Without IGP autoconfiguration, you must define the set of interfaces under LDP,
a procedure that is time-intensive and error-prone.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-15
 Label Advertisement Control Configuration
Advertise only the label for Advertise only the label for
PE1 loopback IP address. PE2 loopback IP address.

IP
MPLS/IP
CE1 PE1 P1 P2 PE2 CE2
Gi0/0/0/0 Gi0/0/0/1 Gi0/0/0/1 Gi0/1
Gi0/0/0/1 Gi0/0/0/0 Gi0/0/0/0 Gi0/0

10.7.10.1 10.7.1.1 10.0.1.1 10.0.2.1 10.8.1.1 10.8.10.1

IOS XR Disables label Disables label advertisement to
mpls ldp advertisement to all IOS XE all peers for all prefixes
label peers for all prefixes
advertise no mpls ldp advertise-labels
disable Specifies neighbors to !
for PFX to PEER advertise and receive mpls ldp advertise-labels for 20 to 21
! label advertisements !
! Specifies neighbors to advertise and
ipv4 access-list PEER
! receive label advertisements
10 permit ipv4 any any
ipv4 access-list PFX access-list 20 permit host 10.8.1.1
10 permit ipv4 host 10.7.1.1 any access-list 21 permit any

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-16
Label Advertisement Control Verification

LIB table of P1 before label advertisement control is configured:

RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:P1# show mpls ldp bindings
10.7.10.1/32, rev 85
Local binding: label: 16021
Remote bindings: (2 peers)
Peer Label The label for the loopback prefix of CE1 is
----------------- -------- received on P1 from PE1.
10.0.2.1:0 16022
10.7.1.1:0 16025

LIB table of P1 after label advertisement control is configured:

RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:P1# show mpls ldp bindings
10.7.10.1/32, rev 85
Local binding: label: 16021
Remote bindings: (1 peer) The label for the loopback prefix of CE1
Peer Label is not received on P1 from PE1.
----------------- --------
10.0.2.1:0 16022

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-17
Label Acceptance Control Configuration
Accept only the label for PE1 loopback
IP address from neighbor PE1.

IP
MPLS/IP
CE1 PE1 P1 P2 PE2 CE2
Gi0/0/0/0 Gi0/0/0/1 Gi0/0/0/1 Gi0/1
Gi0/0/0/1 Gi0/0/0/0 Gi0/0/0/0 Gi0/0

10.7.10.1 10.7.1.1 10.0.1.1 10.0.2.1 10.8.1.1 10.8.10.1

IOS XR Configures inbound label acceptance for

mpls ldp prefixes that are specified by the prefix
label ACL from a neighbor (as specified by its
accept IP address)
for PFX_P1 from 10.7.1.1
!
!
ipv4 access-list PFX_PE1
10 permit ipv4 host 10.7.1.1 any
!
© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-18
MPLS Monitoring Commands

show mpls ldp parameters

• Displays LDP parameters on the local router

show mpls interfaces

• Displays MPLS status on individual interfaces

show mpls ldp discovery

• Displays all discovered LDP neighbors

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-19
Display MPLS LDP Parameters
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:PE1# show mpls ldp parameters

LDP Parameters:
Role: Active
Protocol Version: 1
Router ID: 10.7.1.1
Null Label: Implicit
Session:
Hold time: 180 sec
Keepalive interval: 60 sec
Backoff: Initial:15 sec, Maximum:120 sec
Global MD5 password: Disabled
Discovery:
Link Hellos: Holdtime:15 sec, Interval:5 sec
Targeted Hellos: Holdtime:90 sec, Interval:10 sec
Graceful Restart:
Disabled
NSR: Disabled, Not Sync-ed
Timeouts:
Local binding: 300 sec
Forwarding state in LSD: 15 sec
Max:
1050 interfaces (800 attached, 250 TE tunnel), 1000 peers
OOR state
Memory: Normal

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-20
Display MPLS Configured Interfaces
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:PE1# show mpls interfaces
Tue Oct 18 12:35:17.016 UTC
Interface LDP Tunnel Enabled
-------------------------- -------- -------- --------
GigabitEthernet0/0/0/0 Yes No Yes
GigabitEthernet0/0/0/2 Yes No Yes

RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:PE1# show mpls interfaces detail

Tue Oct 18 12:36:06.585 UTC
Interface GigabitEthernet0/0/0/0:
LDP labelling enabled
LSP labelling not enabled
MPLS enabled
Interface GigabitEthernet0/0/0/2:
LDP labelling enabled
LSP labelling not enabled
MPLS enabled

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-21
Display Status of LDP Discovery Process
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:PE7# show mpls ldp discovery
Tue Oct 18 12:36:43.084 UTC

Local LDP Identifier: 10.7.1.1:0

Discovery Sources:
Interfaces:
GigabitEthernet0/0/0/0 : xmit

GigabitEthernet0/0/0/2 : xmit/recv
LDP Id: 10.0.1.1:0, Transport address: 10.0.1.1
Hold time: 10 sec (local:15 sec, peer:10 sec)

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-22
LDP Monitoring Commands

show mpls ldp neighbor

• Displays individual LDP neighbors

show mpls ldp neighbor detail

• Displays more details about LDP neighbors

show mpls ldp bindings

• Displays LIB table

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-23
Display the Status of the LDP Session
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:PE1# show mpls ldp neighbor
Tue Oct 18 12:37:15.213 UTC

Peer LDP Identifier: 10.0.1.1:0

TCP connection: 10.0.1.1:646 - 10.7.1.1:52952
Graceful Restart: No
Session Holdtime: 180 sec
State: Oper; Msgs sent/rcvd: 382/421; Downstream-Unsolicited
Up time: 05:32:14
LDP Discovery Sources:
GigabitEthernet0/0/0/2
Addresses bound to this peer:
10.0.1.1 10.10.10.18 192.168.1.1 192.168.2.1
192.168.11.1 192.168.21.1 192.168.31.1 192.168.51.1
192.168.61.1 192.168.71.1

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-24
Display the Detailed Status of the LDP Session
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:PE1# show mpls ldp neighbor detail
Tue Oct 18 12:39:44.893 UTC

Peer LDP Identifier: 10.0.1.1:0

TCP connection: 10.0.1.1:646 - 10.7.1.1:52952
Graceful Restart: No
Session Holdtime: 180 sec
State: Oper; Msgs sent/rcvd: 385/424; Downstream-Unsolicited
Up time: 05:34:44
LDP Discovery Sources:
GigabitEthernet0/0/0/2
Addresses bound to this peer:
10.0.1.1 10.10.10.18 192.168.1.1 192.168.2.1
192.168.11.1 192.168.21.1 192.168.31.1 192.168.51.1
192.168.61.1 192.168.71.1
Peer holdtime: 180 sec; KA interval: 60 sec; Peer state: Estab
NSR: Disabled
Capabilities:
Sent:
0x50b (Typed Wildcard FEC)
Received:
0x50b (Typed Wildcard FEC)

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-25
Display the Contents of the LIB Table
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:P1# show mpls ldp bindings
Tue Oct 18 06:32:04.302 UTC

10.0.0.0/8, rev 67
Local binding: label: 16019
Remote bindings: (1 peers)
Peer Label
----------------- --------
10.0.2.1:0 16019

10.7.10.1/32, rev 85
Local binding: label: 16021
Remote bindings: (3 peers)
Peer Label
----------------- --------
10.0.2.1:0 16022
10.3.1.1:0 16025

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-26
Monitor Label Switching

show mpls forwarding

• Displays contents of LFIB table

show cef

• Displays contents of FIB table

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-27
Display the Contents of the LFIB Table
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:PE1# show mpls forwarding
Wed Oct 19 11:00:43.683 UTC
Local Outgoing Prefix Outgoing Next Hop Bytes
Label Label or ID Interface Switched
------ ----------- ------------------ ------------ --------------- ------------
16000 Pop 10.0.1.1/32 Gi0/0/0/2 192.168.71.1 0
16001 16000 10.0.2.1/32 Gi0/0/0/2 192.168.71.1 31354
16002 16010 10.5.1.1/32 Gi0/0/0/2 192.168.71.1 0
16003 16011 10.6.1.1/32 Gi0/0/0/2 192.168.71.1 0
16021 16009 192.168.42.0/24 Gi0/0/0/2 192.168.71.1 0
16023 16018 10.4.1.1/32 Gi0/0/0/2 192.168.71.1 0
16024 16004 192.168.108.0/24 Gi0/0/0/2 192.168.71.1 0
16025 Unlabelled 10.7.10.1/32 Gi0/0/0/0 192.168.107.71 945410
16026 16023 10.8.1.1/32 Gi0/0/0/2 192.168.71.1 0
16027 16024 10.8.10.1/32 Gi0/0/0/2 192.168.71.1 0

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-28
Display the Contents of the FIB Table
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:PE1# show cef
Wed Oct 19 11:34:31.879 UTC

Prefix Next Hop Interface

<...output omitted...>
10.0.1.1/32 192.168.71.1 GigabitEthernet0/0/0/2
10.0.2.1/32 192.168.71.1 GigabitEthernet0/0/0/2
10.5.1.1/32 192.168.71.1 GigabitEthernet0/0/0/2
10.6.1.1/32 192.168.71.1 GigabitEthernet0/0/0/2
10.7.10.1/32 192.168.107.71 GigabitEthernet0/0/0/0
10.8.1.1/32 192.168.71.1 GigabitEthernet0/0/0/2
10.8.10.1/32 192.168.71.1 GigabitEthernet0/0/0/2
192.168.42.0/24 192.168.71.1 GigabitEthernet0/0/0/2
192.168.51.0/24 192.168.71.1 GigabitEthernet0/0/0/2
<...output omitted...>

• Use command show cef 192.168.42.0 to show details for specific prefix

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-29
Debugging MPLS and LDP

debug mpls ldp …

• Debugs LDP adjacencies, session establishment, and

label bindings exchange

debug mpls packet [interface]

• Debugs labeled packets switched by the router

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-30
Classic Ping and Traceroute

P P

CE P P P CE
VPN A PE1 PE2 VPN A

P MPLS P

• 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

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-31
Classic Ping and Traceroute (Cont.)
Broken LSP
P P

52 IP 35 IP IP IP

CE P P P CE
VPN A PE1 PE2 VPN A

P MPLS P

• Broken LSPs may not always be RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:PE1# traceroute 172.16.1.14

revealed: Type escape sequence to abort.

Tracing the route to 172.16.1.14
- Broken LSPs revert back to IP
forwarding. 1 192.168.1.46 [MPLS: Label 34 Exp 0] 8 msec
192.168.1.42 [MPLS: Label 38 Exp 0] 12 msec
- Ping and traceroute succeed. 192.168.1.46 [MPLS: Label 34 Exp 0] 24 msec
2 192.168.1.14 [MPLS: Label 37 Exp 0] 48 msec
• Cisco IOS Software does encode 192.168.1.18 [MPLS: Label 33 Exp 0] 8 msec
MPLS information in ICMP replies. 192.168.1.14 [MPLS: Label 37 Exp 0] 8 msec
3 192.168.1.38 52 msec
• Even multiple paths can 192.168.1.34 8 msec *
sometimes be detected.
© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-32
MPLS Ping and Traceroute
• 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

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-33
MPLS Ping
• 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

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-34
MPLS Ping Example 1

RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:PE1# ping mpls ipv4 172.16.1.14 255.255.255.255

Sending 5, 100-byte MPLS Echos to 172.16.1.14/32,
timeout is 2 seconds, send interval is 0 msec:

Codes: '!' - success, 'Q' - request not sent, '.' - timeout,

'L' - labeled output interface, 'B' - unlabeled output interface,
'D' - DS Map mismatch, 'F' - no FEC mapping, 'f' - FEC mismatch,
'M' - malformed request, 'm' - unsupported tlvs, 'N' - no label entry,
'P' - no rx intf label prot, 'p' - premature termination of LSP,
'R' - transit router, 'I' - unknown upstream index,
'X' - unknown return code, 'x' - return code 0

Type escape sequence to abort.

!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 16/17/20 ms

• IPv4 FEC from the global IPv4 routing table

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-35
MPLS Ping Example 2
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:PE1# ping mpls ipv4 172.16.1.14 255.255.255.255 ttl 1 dsmap repeat 1
Sending 1, 100-byte MPLS Echos to 172.16.1.14/32,
timeout is 2 seconds, send interval is 0 msec:

Codes: '!' - success, 'Q' - request not sent, '.' - timeout,

'L' - labeled output interface, 'B' - unlabeled output interface,
'D' - DS Map mismatch, 'F' - no FEC mapping, 'f' - FEC mismatch,
'M' - malformed request, 'm' - unsupported tlvs, 'N' - no label entry,
'P' - no rx intf label prot, 'p' - premature termination of LSP,
'R' - transit router, 'I' - unknown upstream index,
'X' - unknown return code, 'x' - return code 0

Type escape sequence to abort.

L
Echo Reply received from 192.168.1.2
DSMAP 0, DS Router Addr 127.0.0.1, DS Intf Addr 0
Depth Limit 0, MRU 1500 [Labels: 33 Exp: 0]
Multipath Addresses:

Success rate is 0 percent (0/1)

• The downstream map (dsmap) option can be used to retrieve the

details for a given hop.
• MPLS traceroute can be used instead to display detailed information
for all hops.
© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-36
MPLS Traceroute Example
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:PE1# traceroute mpls ipv4 172.16.1.14 255.255.255.255
Tracing MPLS Label Switched Path to 172.16.1.14/32, timeout is 2 seconds

Codes: '!' - success, 'Q' - request not sent, '.' - timeout,

'L' - labeled output interface, 'B' - unlabeled output interface,
'D' - DS Map mismatch, 'F' - no FEC mapping, 'f' - FEC mismatch,
'M' - malformed request, 'm' - unsupported tlvs, 'N' - no label entry,
'P' - no rx intf label prot, 'p' - premature termination of LSP,
'R' - transit router, 'I' - unknown upstream index,
'X' - unknown return code, 'x' - return code 0

Type escape sequence to abort.

0 192.168.1.1 127.0.0.1 MRU 1500 [Labels: 33 Exp: 0]
I 1 192.168.1.2 127.0.0.1 MRU 1500 [Labels: 33 Exp: 0] 8 ms, ret code 6
I 2 192.168.1.14 127.0.0.1 MRU 1504 [Labels: implicit-null Exp: 0] 12 ms, ret code 6
! 3 192.168.1.34 12 ms, ret code 3

• Labels and MTU can be determined using MPLS traceroute.

• Detailed error information is retrieved upon failure somewhere
in the path.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-37
Symptoms of Common MPLS Issues
• 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.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-38
LDP Session Startup Issues
• 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.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-39
LDP Session Startup Issues (Cont.)
• 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.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-40
Label Distribution Issues
• 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.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-41
Intermittent MPLS Failures After Interface Failure
• 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.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-42
Packet Propagation Issues
• 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.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-43
Summary
• 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.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-44
Summary (Cont.)
• 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.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-45
Summary (Cont.)
• 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.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-46
© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—1-47