ADVANCE NETWORKING

ASSIGNMENT # 5
Outline
 Why we use MPLS.
 What MPLS is and how it works.
 What labels are and how they are used for forwarding.

MULTI – PROTOCOL LABEL SWITCHING

Mpls stands for “ MULTI PROTOCOL LABEL SWITCHING .”

Definition:

“ Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a protocol-agnostic routing technique designed to

speed up and shape traffic flows across enterprise wide area and service provider networks ,
Because in Telecommunication Network that directs data from one node to next based on short
path labels rather than long network addresses , thus avoiding complex lookups in routing table
and that’s why speeding traffic flows .”

The labels identify virtual links (paths) between distant nodes rather than endpoints. MPLS can
encapsulate packets of various network protocols, hence the "multiprotocol" reference on its
name.

MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) is a mechanism that switches traffic based on labels
instead of routing traffic. It’s typically seen in service provider networks and can transport pretty
much everything…IP, IPv6, Ethernet, frame-relay, PPP.

 MPLS VPN is a popular technique to build VPNs for customers over the MPLS provider
network.
 MPLS supports a range of access technologies, including T1/E1, ATM, Frame Relay,
and DSL.
 Basic Terminology in MPLS
FEC ( Forwarding Equivalence Class )
 A group of IP packets which are forwarded in the same manner .

e.g, over the same path ,with the same priority and the same label .

Label
 A short fixed length identifier which is used to identify a FEC .

Label Swapping
 Looking up the incoming label to determine the outgoing label, encapsulation and port .

Label Switched Path ( LSP )

 Path through one or more LSRs for a particular FEC .

Label Switching Router ( LSR )

 An MPLS capable router .

Why do we use MPLS ?

 Per customer routing ( Private Routing )
 Virtual Network
 Fast Processing uses Labels
ATM and frame relay are distant memories, but MPLS lives on in carrier backbones and in
enterprise networks. The most common use cases are branch offices, campus networks, metro
Ethernet services and enterprises that need Quality of Service (QoS) for real-time
applications.

COMPONENTS OF MPLS
When an end user sends traffic into the MPLS network, an MPLS label is added by an ingress
MPLS router that sits on the network edge. The MPLS Label consists of four sub-parts:
The Label: The label holds all of the information for the MPLS routers to determine where the
packet should be forwarded.

Experimental: Experimental bits are used for Quality of Service (QoS) to set the priority that
the labeled packet should have.

MPLS HEADER : 32 Bits ( 4 Bytes )

The Label Value Exp S TTL

20 Bits 3 Bits 1 Bit 8 Bits

Layer 2 Header MPLS Header IP Packets

Bottom-of-Stack: The Bottom-of-Stack tells the MPLS Router if it is the last leg of the
journey and there are no more labels to be concerned with. This usually means the router is an
egress router.

Time-To-Live: This identifies how many hops the packet can make before it is discarded.

The paths, which are called label-switched paths (LSPs), enable service providers to decide
ahead of time the best way for certain types of traffic to flow within a private or public network.

Is MPLS Layer 2 or Layer 3 Service ?

MPLS allows most data packets to be forwarded at Layer 2 -- the switching level -- rather than
having to be passed up to Layer 3 -- the routing level. For this reason, it is often informally
described as operating at Layer 2.5.
 WORKING OF MPLS
MPLS uses the best of routing and switching technology for a better throughput using a special
device which is called LSR (Label Switch Router) taking its name from switch and router.

There are two kinds of routers that are used in the MPLS domain:

 LSR (Label Switch Router) and,

 LER (Label Edge Router)

In an MPLS network, each packet gets labeled on entry into the service provider's network by
the ingress router, also known as the label Edge Router (LER). This is also the router that
decides the LSP the packet will take until it reaches its destination address.

All the subsequent label-switching routers (LSRs) perform packet forwarding based only on
those MPLS labels -- they never look as far as the IP header. Finally, the egress router removes
the labels and forwards the original IP packet toward its final destination.
LSRs work at the core level in the MPLS domain while LERs work at the edge of the network
where IP networks and MPLS network meet together.

When an LSR receives a packet, it performs one or more of the following actions:

 Push: Adds a label. This is typically performed by the ingress router.

 Swap: Replaces a label. This is usually performed by LSRs between the ingress and
egress routers.
 Pop: Removes a label. This is most often done by the egress router.

This diagram illustrates how a simple MPLS network works.

MPLS Pros and Cons

The benefits of MPLS are scalability, performance, better bandwidth utilization, reduced
network congestion and a better end-user experience.

MPLS itself does not provide encryption, but it is a virtual private network and, as such, is
partitioned off from the public Internet. Therefore, MPLS is considered a secure transport mode.
And it is not vulnerable to denial of service attacks, which might impact pure-IP-based networks.
On the negative side, MPLS is a service that must be purchased from a carrier and is far
more expensive than sending traffic over the public Internet.

As companies expand into new markets, they may find it difficult to find an MPLS service
provider who can deliver global coverage. Typically, service providers piece together global
coverage through partnerships with other service providers, which can be costly.

And MPLS was designed in an era when branch offices sent traffic back to a main headquarters
or data center, not for today’s world where branch office workers want direct access to the
cloud.

Future of MPLS

Futuristically, MPLS is scalable to IPv6 as well. However, the main motive behind MPLS was to
increase the routing speed which is no more a constraint due to ASICs and CAM-table based
switching. Because of it, MPLS is limited to fixed usage now. There have been some
improvements in it over the years such as MPLS-TP, another variant of MPLS, but the usage still
remains the same.