MPLS: Understanding

Scheduled Dates (sort by: location | date)

Course Overview

The objective of this course is to Introduce the concepts, vocabulary and terminology associated with MPLS. The course is presented as a mixture of discussion and teaching sessions.

Audience

Technical Specialists, Consultants, Designers and Implementors who need a good understanding of MPLS and how it could be deployed.

Skills Gained

• Introduce the concepts, vocabulary and terminology associated with MPLS.
• Explain how MPLS provides QoS in an IP environment.
• Understand how labels are distributed through LDP.
• Describe the main message and packets used by MPLS.
• Discuss common deployments of MPLS.
• Understand how MPLS interacts with other technologies such as ATM, Frame Relay, etc.
• Understand how MPLS can be used for VPNs and Traffic Engineering
• Describe generalised MPLS (GMPLS)

Prerequisites

Internetworking with TCP/IP (ETS308) and IP QoS (ETS365).

Course Outline

Setting the Scene

• What is MPLS?
• Where has it come from?
• Toshiba Cell Switch Router
• IBM's ARIS
• Ipsilon's IP Switching
• Cisco's Tag Switching
• Objectives of MPLS
• Benefits of MPLS
• MPLS Standards

MPLS Operation

• Terminology
• Basic Operation
• FECs
• FEC Aggregation
• LSPs and Label Stacks
• LSP Control

• Ordered
• Independent
• Packet Forwarding
• Routing Issues
• MPLS Header
• Label Format
• Penultimate Pop Hopping
• Label Merging
• Multicast Support

Label Distribution Protocol

• LDP Operation
• LDP Sessions
• Label Distribution Methods
• Downstream Unsolicited
• Downstream on Demand
• Label Retention
• Conservative Label Retention
• Liberal Label Retention
• LDP Packet Format
• LDP Messages
• Notification
• Hello
• Keep Alive
• Address/Address Withdraw
• Label Mapping/Label Request
• Label Withdraw
• Label Release
• LDP Message Format
• TLV Encoding
• Alternatives to LDP

Cell Mode MPLS

• ATM Signalling Points
• MPLS and ATM
• ATM Label Encapsulation
• ATM Label Swapping
• Cell Interleaving
• VC Merging
• Downstream-on-Demand
• Loop Detection
• Using LDP
• Using Path Vectors
• TTL Calculation
• Cell Mode vs Frame Mode

MPLS and QoS

• MPLS and Differentiated Services
• Supporting DiffServ
• MPLS and RSVP
• RSVP Support
• MPLS and ECN

Constraint Based Routing

• What is CBR?
• CBR Traffic Parameters
• Components of CBR
• CSPF
• CR-LDP
• RSVP Extensions
• Explicit Routing with RSVP
• Explicit Routing with CR-LDP
• Path Pre-emption
• Fast Re-route
• CR-LDP Messages & TLVs
• CR-LDP vs RSVP

MPLS Traffic Engineering

• Why we need it
• Explicit Routes and CBR
• Soft & Hard Explicit Routes
• QoS in Traffic Engineering
• Constraint Based Fast Re-routing
• MPLS and VPNs VPN Definition
• VPN Models
• Overlay Model
• Peer Model
• Typical VPN Hierarchies
• VPN Packet Forwarding
• VPN-IP Addresses
• BGP VPN Extensions

GMPLS

• What is it?
• Why do we need it?
• MPLS and Optical Networking
• Basic Operation
• Add/Drop Optical Multiplexors
• DWDM
• Label Switching

Implementing MPLS

• Where to Use MPLS?
• MPLS and VPNs
• Voice over MPLS
• MPLS and Ethernet
• MPLS and the Martini drafts
• MPLS and the Kompella Drafts
• Implementation Challenges
• Examples
• MPLS Maintenance Framework
• Routing Recovery
• Protection Switching
• Post Recovery
• Maintenance Issues

Follow On Courses

MPLS VPNs (ETS384)

MPLS: Understanding / GEN5026