MPLS - How does it work ?

MPLS Label Stack

Label (20-bits)
32-bits - Path Label - RSVP

CoS S

TTL

L2 Header Fields
Label

MPLS Header

MPLS Header

IP Packet

32-bits - VPN Label - MP-BGP

Experimental (CoS)

Stacking bit
Time to live Always set to 255 in the GX Network

Label (20-bits)

CoS S

TTL

VPN Label

Path Label

The originating PR device when announcing the VPN route to the rest of the network assigns the VPN label and announces it as part of the MP-BGP route announcement. The Label refers to the egress interface on the originating PR device the packet should be forwarded out. The originating PR device will perform a POP operation on any MPLS encapsulated packet received with a valid VPN Label A routing lookup is performed on the destination address of the inbound packet on the inbound PR in the VPN specific routing table to find the VPN Label

Provides a path from the Ingress PR device to the Egress PR device that originated the VPN route. All BGP routes have a next hop address

This is always the originating PR router of the route

When the route lookup is performed to find the VPN Label a recursive lookup is performed on the next hop address and this will return the Path Label

This is derived from the RSVP TE Tunnel to reach the originating PR device

Remember: Traffic flows in the inverse direction to routing information.

Architecture VPN Separation

PR

WHIP MPLS CORE

VRF VRF
BGP VPNv4

MPLS LSP
BGP VPNv4 BGP VPNv4

VRF VRF
PR

PR

VRF

Each customer interface is mapped into a VRF.

Holds routing and reachability information for the Customers VPN Could hold a subset of the routes within a VPN as apposed to all the routes

BGP with VPN extensions, is used to transfer routes and reachability information between VRFs on different PRs.

On export from a VRF the route is tagged with a BGP community which defines which VPN it belongs to, as well as the topology type (I.e. Full Mesh, Hub and Spoke, etc) The VPN extensions carry a VPN label to ensure packets are routed through the correct VRF.

MPLS/BGP IP-VPN 101 MP-BGP -> VPN Label

CPE-1

Site 2
CPE-3

PR-1

PR-2

CPE-2

FT
FT

IBGP session

FT
CPE-4

Site 1 Site 2 (10/8)

Site 1

FT

1 2

IP Packet with Destination address of 10.1.1.1

Route lookup performed on 10.1.1.1 in RED VPN
Returns Label value of 75 Next hop of PR-2

Route lookup on PR-2

Returns RSVP label of LSP to reach PR-2

Packet transmitted with label stack of

RSVP Label 75

Receives MPLS labelled packet with label of 75 POPs Label Sends to CPE-4

Applications Today and Tomorrow

Intranets for company communications LAN extension
Remote access solution for mobile workforce and remote locations

Extranets for customers, partners, suppliers & communities of interest

Connections to Global Crossing Financial Extranet (content) Analyst firm customers download reports, video conferencing & streaming video Hosted applications

Convergence of applications: voice, video, Internet and corporate data

VoIP
IP Videoconferencing L2 Virtual Private Lines (VPLs) for legacy protocol transport (X.25, FR/ATM)

Business continuity
Redundant back-up with usage based-billing . . .

. . . also carries your extra traffic

Want to Know More?

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