BASIC MPLS CONCEPTS

Introducing the technology

• The rationale for MPLS
• Routers and Switches
• Edge Route, Core Switch

Label and FEC

• Labelled packet forwarding
• Label, FEC and LIB
• Packet Labelling/Forwarding
• Label Switched Path
• Traffic Aggregation/Switch
• LSP Nodes/Establishment

Label distribution protocol

• Label distribution protocol
• Advanced forwarding table
• LDP Operation

LABEL ENCODING

The Shim layer

• Between Layers 2 and 3
• Layer 2 Technologies and Labels
• MPLS Shim

MPLS Shim Header

• The Shim Header
• Label Field
• Null Label, LSP and the Node
• Experimental (Exp) field
• Time to Live field
• Stack-end field
• Hop Popping
• Routing and Tunnelling

Label Aggregation

• The Nature of IP Networks
• LSPs, Label Bindings and Labels
• Label Aggregation and Frame Merging

ICMP MESSAGES

ICMP in brief

• ICMP Message Defined
• ICMP Message Types
• ICMP Echo Request and Reply
• ICMP Time Exceeded - Error
• Sending an ICMP Message

MPLS Object Extensions

• Extended ICMP Message Length
• Time Exceeded Error Message
• MPLS Extended Payload Object
• Enhanced Traceroute Example

LDP SIGNALLING PROTOCOL

Key Aspects of LDP

• LDP in Brief
• Upstream vs Downstream LSR
• LDP Label Distribution Procedures
• LDP Label Retention Modes
• LDP Label Request Procedures
• LDP Operation
• LDP Security and Privacy Issues
• Future Study

LDP Message Types

• LDP Message Types
• LDP PDUs
• LDP Message Format

Discovery Messages

• Hello Messages
• Targetted Hellos
• Encoding of Hello Messages
• Encoding of Hello Parameters
• Recap Discovery Phase

TCP Session Establishment

• TCP Connection Phases
• Reliable TCP Virtual Connection
• Initialization Message
• Initialization Optional Parameters
• Frame Relay Session Parameters

Advertisement messages

• Messages setting LSP
• Advertisement Messages
• LDP Vendor-private Messages

Notification messages

• Notification
• KeepAlive

TLV Encoding

• FEC TLV Encoding
• Label TLV Encodings
• Address TLVs in LDP Messages
• Hop Count TLVs in LDP Messages
• Path Vector TLVs in LDP Messages
• Status TLV in LDP Messages

CR-LDP SIGNALLING PROTOCOL

Constraint routing

• Constraint Routing
• Scalability, Limitations, Security
• Constraints in CR-LDP

CR-LDP

• Explicit Route
• Explicit Route Operation
• Explicit Route – Loose Hop
• Constrained Shortest Path First
• Pre-emption
• Route Pinning
• Resource Class
• LSPID

CR-LDP Messages

• LDP PDUs
• CR-LDP Message Format
• Label Request Messages
• Label Mapping Messages
• Notification Message

TLV Encoding

• Explicit Route TLV
• Traffic Parameters TLV
• Pre-emption TLV
• LSPID TLV
• Resource Class TLV
• Explicit Route – Hop TLV
• Route Pinning TLV
• CR-LSP FEC Element TLV

RSVP-TE SIGNALLING PROTOCOL

RSVP in Brief

• Resource Reservation Protocol
• RSVP Node
• Session Data Flow
• Reservation Styles
• RSVP PATH and RESV messages
• RSVP Reservation and Data Flow

RSVP Message Encoding

• RSVP Message Common Header
• RSVP Message Object Structure
• RSVP Message Objects

RSVP-TE

• RSVP-TE Message Encoding
• RSVP-TE LSP Setup Flow
• New RSVP-TE Objects
• Message Format and Optional Hello
• Reservation Style Objects

RSVP-TE: objects

• Label Request Object C-types
• Label Object
• LSP_Tunnel_IP Session Objects
• Path – Additional Data Objects
• RSVP-TE versus CR-LDP

BORDER GATEWAY PROTOCOL 4

BGP in Brief

• Border Gateway Protocol
• BGP basics

BGP Operation

• Routing and Tunnelling
• Directly-connected LSRs
• Network Layer Reachability Information
• Not-directly-connected BGP LSRs

MPLS over ATM

ATM in Brief

• VPI/VCI
• Cell Header Structure
• Virtual Channels and Paths
• Connection Table
• Virtual Connection Vocabulary

MPLS and ATM

• Motivation for MPLS over ATM
• ATM-label Switching Router
• ATM-LSR Behaviour and Constraints
• Peer Approach
• ‘Ships in the Night’ Approach
• Integrated Approach

Aspects of Connectivity

• Transparent Point-to-Point Link
• End-to-End LSP Communications
• RFC 2684
• ATM Adaptation Layer 5 Structures
• Connection through a Virtual Path
• Connectivity – Virtual Path/Connection

ATM Coding and VC Merge

• ATM Coding of Labelled Packets
• Stack Encoding
• VC-Merge and Non-VC-Merge ATM-LSR

VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORKS

VPNs in Brief

• VPN Defined
• Basic VPN Requirements
• VPN Overlay Model

VPN Peer Model

• VPN Peer Model Introduction
• Constrained Distribution of Routing
• Forwarding Tables
• VPN-IP Address
• MPLS as Forwarding Mechanism

MPLS QUALITY OF SERVICE

MPLS Support for IntServ QoS

• IntServ QoS Model
• MPLS RSVP-TE Support
• MPLS CR-LDP Support

MPLS Support for DiffServ QoS

• DiffServ QoS model
• ToS Byte
• MPLS Support Techniques

MPLS EVOLUTION AND STANDARDS

The Evolution of Networks

• IP Switching Initiatives
• Evolution of the Internet
• Next Generation Internet
• US - Next Generation Internet Initiative – Abilene
• US - NGI Initiative – vBNS
• CA*net 2 and 3 Internet Initiatives

MPLS Products and Support

• MPLS Vendor Products
• Early MPLS Adopters and Application
• MPLS Testing and Analysis
• Interoperability Testing Bodies
• Interoperability Testing Example

MPLS Resources

• MPLS Forum and its Goals
• MPLS Resource Center
• Internet Engineering Task Force
• Books
• Copyright Statements