Higher Institute for Applied Sciences and Technology Telecommunication department Master Program 2011-2012

HIAST

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)

(5)

Prepared by Dr. Khaldoun KHORZOM

1

The switching problem

OSI Reference Model Application Presentation Session Transport
Knows about other workgroups Knows about local workgroup Doesnt know anything

Network Data Link Physical

Router Workgroup Switch Repeater

Route/ Switch Hub

The switching problem (continued)

What does a switch do? Establishes a path through a network end-end (connection) Example: circuit switch used in telephony No need for decisions at each point along the way

The switching problem (continued)

What does a router do? Looks at incoming packet address and looks it up in table to find outgoing port No dedicated paths established (connectionless) Router does not know total path Dynamic paths Path for subsequent packets going to same destination may change due to congestion or other problems Requires seach Complexity ~ O(log2 n), where n is number of entries in routing table

The switching problem (continued)

IP traffic: primarily routed ATM traffic: primarily switched Permanent virtual circuit (PVC) fixed Switched virtual circuit (SVC) dynamic

The switching problem (continued)

How to switch (route) packets with least expenditure of processing? How to allow different services to coexist on same IP network? At present, isochronous traffic (e.g., voice) does not work if network utilization greater than about 25% Requires QOS (quality of service) or COS (class of service) How to allow different protocols on same network? IP ATM

The switching problem (continued)

How to have a single packet forwarding method or paradigm while still allowing for different routing paradigms OSPF: Open Shortest Path First PNNI: Private Network to Node Interface or Private Network to Network Interface An ATM routing protocol

Desired solution elements

Combine best of switching and routing Do routing once to find a path Record path elements Apply tag to subsequent packets with path information No need for looking into these packets to fetch addresses and do lookups at each router Complexity ~ O(1), because indexing is used Initially called Tag switching or Label switching

Label Switching
Have a friend go to B ahead of you using one of the previous two techniques. At every road they reserve a lane just for you. At every intersection they post a big sign that says for a given lane which way to turn and what new lane to take.

LANE#1 TURN RIGHT USE LANE#2 LANE#1

LANE#2

Basic idea behind label switching

Set up virtual circuit between source and destination Assign numbers to each path element Copy numbers to packets Switch packet based on number Ingress router or host applies label Exit router strips it off

Basic idea behind label switching (continued)

Forwarding of packets done using a short, fixed-length label rather than disassembly of complete address Addressing scheme different for different protocols (ATM, FR, IP, etc) Labels identify streams of traffic Label table much smaller than routing table Each label represents a set of destination addresses Packets with same label treated as a group, not individually Utilizes Time-To-Live (TTL) counter accurately maintained Idea is similar to PVCs and SVCs

Solution: Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)

Layer 3 technology Works with any protocol, but primarily used for IP traffic MPLS is being considered for: high-speed IP backbones, legacy ATM, optical Glues connectionless IP to connection-oriented networks IP to ATM IP to optical networks Referred to as shim layer Something between layer 2 and layer 3 to make them fit better

Solution (continued)
Addresses problems of modern networks Speed Scalability Quality of Service (QoS) management Traffic engineering (TE) Multiprotocol

MPLS functions
Mechanisms to manage traffic flows of various granularities Independent of layer 2 and layer 3 specs But serves as glue Maps IP addresses to fixed length labels to speed forwarding Interfaces to existing routing protocols such as OSPF Supports IP, FR, ATM layer 2 protocols

MPLS paths
Utilizes label-switched paths (LSPs) Sequence of labels at every node from source to destination Each label represents a path between two nodes Set up in two ways Hop-by-hop Explicit routing Label establishment Prior to packet transmission (control-driven) Upon detection of a certain flow (data-driven)

MPLS devices
LSR: Label Switched Router High speed router (switch) in core of MPLS network Participates in establishment of LSPs

LER: Label Edge Router Operates at edge of access network and MPLS network Forwards traffic to MPLS network after establishing paths and attaching labels

Aggregating addresses in one label

Aggregating addresses may be done in different ways Flow direction Traffic priority Traffic type Source address
IP Destination 85.32.16.122 114.42.77.33 16.33.41.76 131.33.55.19 Label 225 225 225 225
Label Switched Path 225

Part of Label Information Base

There are many examples of label substitution protocols already in existence

ATM - label is called VPI/VCI and travels with cell. Frame Relay - label is called a DLCI and travels with frame. TDM - label is called a timeslot its implied, like a lane. X25 - a label is an LCN Proprietary PORS, TAG etc.. One day perhaps Frequency substitution where label is a light frequency (or wavelength)?

Label creation methods

Topology-based Uses normal processing of routing protocols Request-based Uses processing of request-based control traffic Traffic-based Uses reception of packet to trigger assignment and distribution of label

MPLS terminology
Label: short, fixed length, contiguous bits, locally significant (i.e., on a single link) Label switching router (LSR): Routers that use labels Traditional router ATM switch FR switch Optical switch Forwarding equivalence class (FEC): Same path and same treatment => same label Label switched path (LSP): Particular path through network MPLS domain: contiguous set of MPLS nodes in one administrative domain

MPLS terminology (continued)

MPLS edge node: ingress or egress node Label information base (LIB): label tables in each MPLS node which contain path information associated with labels Label distribution protocol (LDP): Method for distributing label information

Normal routing of packet

Label distribution by MPLS

MPLS switching through network

Forwarding results of lookup

IP Destination 85.32.16.122 114.42.77.33 16.33.41.76 131.33.55.19 Label 225 225 225 225 IP Destination 85.32.16.122 Label 33 196 75 196 LSP 75 LSP 196

LSP 33

Label Switched Path 225

114.42.77.33 16.33.41.76 131.33.55.19

Labels can be merged

IP Destination 211.35.45.8 Label 33

Label Switched Path 33

IP Destination 85.32.16.122 114.42.77.33

Label 196 196 196 196 LSP 196

IP Destination 85.32.16.122 114.42.77.33 16.33.41.76 131.33.55.19

Label

16.33.41.76

Label Switched Path 225

225 225 225 225

131.33.55.19

Labels can also be tunneled

IP Destination 211.35.45.8

Label 33

LSP 33 LSP 99
IP Destination 85.32.16.122 114.42.77.33 16.33.41.76 131.33.55.19 Label

LSP 33

LSP 225
225 225 225 225

LSP 225

Routing protocols in MPLS

OSPF: Open Shortest Path First Intended to yield better routing Based on link-state technology Allows Variable Length Subnet Masks (VLSM) Other enhancements BGP: Border Gateway Protocol Purpose is to advertise to other routers what your network can route to (internally) IS-IS: Intermediate System to Intermediate System Authentication between routers

Summary of motivations for MPLS

Simplified forwarding based on exact match of fixed length label Initial drive for MPLS was based on existence of cheap, fast ATM switches Separation of routing and forwarding in IP networks Facilitates evolution of routing techniques by fixing the forwarding method New routing functionality can be deployed without changing the forwarding techniques of every router in the Internet Facilitates the integration of ATM and IP Allows carriers to leverage their large investment of ATM equipment

Summary of motivations for MPLS (continued)

Can be easily used for such things as traffic management, QoS routing Promotes the partitioning of functionality within the network Move granular processing of packets to edge; restrict core to packet forwarding Improved routing scalability Removes the need for full routing tables from interior routers in transit domain; only routes to border routers are required Applicability to both cell and packet link-layers Can be deployed on both cell (eg. ATM) and packet (eg. FR, Ethernet) media Common management and techniques simplifies engineering

Generalized MPLS (sometimes referred to as MPS) or GMPLS

MPS = Multiprotocol Lambda Switching Generalizes MPLS to deal with optical networking Photonic switches (PXCs) Optical Cross Connects (OXCs) Add/Drop Multiplexers (ADMs) DWDM Wavelength router Attempts to utilize as much of MPLS engineering as possible Requires rethinking of some concepts How label switching can be done What edge devices should see