MPLS Overview Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) provides a mechanism for engineering network traffic patterns that is independent

of routing tables. MPLS assigns short labels to network packets that describe how to forward them through the network. MPLS is independent of any routing protocol and can be used for unicast packets. In the traditional Level 3 forwarding paradigm, as a packet travels from one router to the next, an independent forwarding decision is made at each hop. The IP network layer header is analyzed, and the next-hop is chosen based on this analysis and on the information in the routing table. In an MPLS environment, the analysis of the packet header is performed just once, when a packet enters the MPLS cloud. The packet then is assigned to a stream, which is identified by a label, which is a short (20-bit), fixed-length value at the front of the packet. Labels are used as lookup indexes into the label forwarding table. For each label, this table stores forwarding information. You can associate additional information with a labelsuch as class-of-service (CoS) values that can be used to prioritize packet forwarding. Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) was originally presented as a way of improving the forwarding speed of routers but is now emerging as a crucial standard technology that offers new capabilities for large scale IP networks. Traffic engineering, the ability of network operators to dictate the path that traffic takes through their network, and Virtual Private Network support are examples of two key applications where MPLS is superior to any currently available IP technology. Although MPLS was conceived as being independent of Layer 2, much of the excitement generated by MPLS revolves around its promise to provide a more effective means of deploying IP networks across ATM-based WAN backbones. The Internet Engineering Task Force is developing MPLS with draft standards expected by the end of 1998. MPLS is viewed by some as one of the most important network developments of the 1990's. This article will explain why MPLS is generating such interest. The essence of MPLS is the generation of a short fixed-length label that acts as a shorthand representation of an IP packet's header. This is much the same way as a ZIP code is shorthand for the house, street and city in a postal address, and the use of that label to make forwarding decisions about the packet. IP packets have a field in their 'header' that contains the address to which the packet is to be routed. Traditional routed networks process this information at every router in a packet's path through the network (hop by hop routing). In MPLS, the IP packets are encapsulated with these labels by the first MPLS device they encounter as they enter the network. The MPLS edge router analyses the contents of the IP header and selects an appropriate label with which to encapsulate the packet. Part of the great power of MPLS comes from the fact that, in contrast to conventional IP routing, this analysis can be based on more than just the destination address carried in the IP header. At all the subsequent nodes within the network the MPLS label, and not the IP

header, is used to make the forwarding decision for the packet. Finally, as MPLS labeled packets leave the network, another edge router removes the labels. In MPLS terminology, the packet handling nodes or routers are called Label Switched Routers (LSRs). The derivation of the term should be obvious; MPLS routers forward packets by making switching decisions based on the MPLS label. This illustrates another of the key concepts in MPLS. Conventional IP routers contain routing tables which are looked up using the IP header from a packet to decide how to forward that packet. These tables are built by IP routing protocols (e.g., RIP or OSPF) which carry around IP reachability information in the form of IP addresses. In practice, we find that forwarding (IP header lookup) and control planes (generation of the routing tables) are tightly coupled. Since MPLS forwarding is based on labels it is possible to cleanly separate the (label-based) forwarding plane from the routing protocol control plane. By separating the two, each can be modified independently. With such a separation, we don't need to change the forwarding machinery, for example, to migrate a new routing strategy into the network. There are two broad categories of LSR. At the edge of the network, we require high performance packet classifiers that can apply (and remove) the requisite labels: we call these MPLS edge routers. Core LSRs need to be capable of processing the labeled packets at extremely high bandwidths. This is an abstract of the MPLS article contained in techguide.com. The complete article examines MPLS and the opportunities it offers to users and also to the service providers who are designing and engineering the next generation of IP networks. It also describes why new carrier-class edge devices will become a key component in the provisioning of future network services. How Does Mpls Work? In order to understand MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching), you first need to know it's not a service, but a technique. This technique is used for sending such services as IP VPNs, Metro Ethernet and optical services. While carriers design MPLS network backbones, the actual services businesses purchase are not called MPLS, instead go by the names IP VPN, Metro Ethernet or any other name the industry decides to label it at the time. Labeling packets are the main concept behind MPLS. Standard routed IP networks consist of each router independently deciding where to send the packet each time the packet arrives at the router. This decision is based entirely on the packet's network-layer header. When a packet arrives in the network, it gets matched up with a specific forwarding equivalence class (FEC) that attaches a short bit sequence (label) to the packet. Tables for each router in the network are then used for identifying how packets of a specific FEC type are to be handled. Header analysis is no longer necessary once the packet enters the

network. Instead, a new FEC is made each time the label is used by the routers to index into a table. Tables allow an MPLS network to consistently sort packets based on their individual characteristics (i.e., packets coming from certain ports or packets carrying data for certain applications). While a challenging task, packets carrying real-time traffic (i.e., voice and video) can be given priority over other applications by assigning them to low-latency routes within the network. The important thing to remember is labels are used for "attaching" more information to each packet than what the routers originally had.

MPLS Architecture To further understand exactly how MPLS works you must understand how the control plane and data plane compliment each other during the forwarding process in a Label Switch Router.

As you can see from the graph the Label Switch Routers exchange routes with each other, usually by the routing protocols OSPF or EIGRP. This is a standard network layer function. The best routes for the respective networks based on the routing protocols in use are placed in the routing table, this is how standard routing works. Once the routing table is populated, CEF (Cisco Express Forwarding) uses that information to enable MPLS label switching. Simply put, CEF is required to be able to label switch in an MPLS network. CEF has two components, the Forwarding Information Base (FIB) and the adjacency table. The FIB (located in the data plane) is responsible for maintaining next hop IP addresses for all of the routes in the routing table. The adjacency table is responsible for maintaining the layer 2 information for each FIB entry. The adjacency table is responsible for the layer 2 rewrite, and it avoids the need for an ARP request for each IP address lookup. Basically CEF binds the next hop address for a specific network to a physical interface mac address. It relies on recursive updates in and from the routing table to do this. This is essentially what allows layer 3 switching.

When you enable MPLS on a router, the routing table is also copied in to a MPLS IP routing control table, which remains in the control plane. Adjacent to this is the Label Information Base (LIB, also referred to as Tag Information Base as shown in the picture) which is where the MPLS labels exist. The MPLS IP routing control table is what actually binds labels from the LIB to the IP routes in the IP routing table. The MPLS IP routing and control table is also where the label distribution protocol lives. Said protocol, like Label Distribution Protocol (LDP), shares the locally significant label to IP route bindings with other LSRs in the network. This makes the creation of virtual circuits via label stacks possible. Label stacks are used in MPLS applications such as Traffic Engineering and VPN implementation. MPLS IP routing and control information is also copied in to the FIB and the TFIB/LFIB (Tag or Label Forwarding Information Base). The difference between these two tables (FIB and TFIB/LFIB) is in their purpose in the forwarding of data. What is not shown is a logic block that exists in between the FIB and TFIB/LFIB. This block is where label lookup occurs and the decision to remove the label from the packet for forwarding, or replace the label with the locally significant label for forwarding occurs. This is applicable when a labeled packet is received. Since the packet is labeled it goes to the TFIB, there is usually an arrow pointing up to the FIB (denoting the logic process) but not in this particular diagram. If the label was removed it would be sent to the FIB for appropriate forwarding.