MPLS

Traffic Engineering
George Swallow
swallow@cisco.com

Traffic Engineering 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. 1

 What is Traffic Engineering

Taking control of how traffic flows in your

network in order to -
Improve overall network performance
Offer premium services
As a tactical tool to deal with network design
issues when the longer range solution are
not deployed

Traffic Eng. 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems 2

 Voice Traffic Engineering

Telcos noticed that demands vary

widely by time of day
Began engineering the traffic
long ago
Evolved over time
Now fully automated

Traffic Eng. 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems 3

 Reasons for Traffic Engineering

Economics more packets, fewer $$$

Address deficiencies of IP routing
Tactical tool for network operations
Class-of-service routing

Traffic Eng. 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems 4

 Economics of Traffic Engineering

The efficacy with which one uses the

available bandwidth in the transmission
fabric directly drives the fundamental
manufacturing efficiency of the
business and its cost structure.

Mike ODell, UUnet

Savings can be dramatic. Studies have shown that

transmission costs can be reduced by 40%.

Traffic Eng. 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems 5

 The Fish Problem
a deficiency in IP routing
R8
R3
R4
R5
R2

R1

R6
R7

IP uses shortest path destination based routing

Shortest path may not be the only path
Alternate paths may be under-utilized while the
shortest path is over-utilized
Traffic Eng. 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems 6
 Deficiencies in IP Routing

Chronic local congestion

Load balancing
Across long haul links
Size of links
Difficult to get IP to make good use unequal size
links without overloading the lower speed link

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 Load Balancing

Making good use of expensive links simply by

adjusting IGP metrics can be a frustrating exercise!

Traffic Eng. 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems 8

 Overlay Motivation

Separate Layer 2 Network

(Frame Relay or ATM)

The use of the explicit Layer 2 transit layer

gives us very exacting control of how
traffic uses the available bandwidth in
ways not currently possible by tinkering
with Layer 3-only metrics.
Mike ODell
UUnet, November 17, 1996

Traffic Eng. 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems 9

 The Overlay Solution
L3 L3
L3 L3
L2 L2
L3 L2 L2 L3 L3 L3

L2 L2 L3 L3
L3 L3
Physical Logical

Layer 2 network used to manage

the bandwidth
Layer 3 sees a complete mesh
Traffic Eng. 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems 10
 Overlay Drawbacks

Extra network devices (cost)

More complex network management
Two-level network without integrated NM
Additional training, technical support,
field engineering

IGP routing doesnt scale for meshes

Number of LSPs generated for a failed router is
O(n3); n = number of routers

Traffic Eng. 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems 11

 Traffic Engineering & MPLS

+ = or

Router ATM Switch MPLS

ATM MPLS
Router
Router
MPLS fuses Layer 2 and Layer 3
Layer 2 capabilities of MPLS can
be exploited for IP traffic engineering
Single box / network solution

Traffic Eng. 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems 12

 An LSP Tunnel
R8
R3
R4
R5
R2

R1

R6
R7

Labels, like VCIs can be used to establish virtual circuits

Normal Route R1->R2->R3->R4->R5
Tunnel: R1->R2->R6->R7->R4
Traffic Eng. 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems 13
 Comprehensive Traffic
Engineering

Network design
Engineer the topology to fit the traffic
Traffic engineering
Engineer the traffic to fit the topology
Given a fixed topology and a traffic matrix, what set
of explicit routes offers the best overall network
performance?

Traffic Eng. 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems 14

 The Traffic Engineering System

Statistics
Collection

Traffic Analysis

Traffic Engineering
Design and Modeling
CLI
TE Tunnel
Configuration

Router Network Traffic Engineering Tools

Traffic Eng. 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems 15

 Approaches to Traffic
Engineering

Comprehensive Comprehensive
for TE
Topology

Premium Flows

Tactical Tactical
for TE
Premium Flows

Type of Traffic

Traffic Eng. 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems 16

 Tactical Traffic Engineering

Links not available

Infrastructure doesnt exist
Lead times too long
Failure scenarios
Unanticipated growth and
shifts in traffic

Traffic Eng. 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems 17

 Tactical TE
An Example

Major US ISP
New web site appears
Within weeks becomes the largest traffic source on their
network
One of their PoPs becomes completely congested
Once the problem was identified
TE tunnels were established to route away any traffic passing
through that PoP, but not destined or sourced there
Congestion was completely resolved in 5 minutes

Traffic Eng. 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems 18

 System Block Diagram

Traffic
Engineering
Control
Path RSVP
Selection

TE Topology
TE Link
Database
Adm Ctl

IS-IS/OSPF
Routing Flooding

Forwarding Engine

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 TE Tunnel Attributes

Bandwidth
Setup & Holding priorities
Used for Admission Control
Resource class affinity
Simple policy routing
Path Options
Input to route selection
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 LSP Tunnel Setup
R8 R9
R3
R4
R2 Pop

R5
R1
32
49
R6 R7
17

22

Setup: Path (R1->R2->R6->R7->R4->R9) Tunnel ID 5, Path ID 1

Reply: Communicates Labels and Label Operations

Reserves bandwidth on each link

Traffic Eng. 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems 21

 Multiple Parallel Tunnels

Automatically load shared

Weighted by bandwidth
to nearest part in 16
Traffic assigned by either
Source-Destination hash
Round robin

Traffic Eng. 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems 22

 Automatic Load Balancing

LSP Tunnel #1 Stockholm

New York Link #1 London
#1 #1
Frankfurt
LSP Tunnel #2
New York Link #2 London
#2 #2
Amsterdam

Brussels

LSPTunnel #3
Washington Link #3 Paris
Munich

Traffic Eng. 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems 23

 Additional Features

Adjusting to failures
Requires rapid notification
Adjusting to improvements
Need to account for
Global optimality
Network stability

Traffic Eng. 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems 24

 Protection Strategy

Two pronged approach:

Local protection
Repair made at the point of failure us to keep critical
applications going
Fast - O(milliseconds)
Sub-optimal
Path protection
An optimized long term repair
Slower - O(seconds)

Traffic Eng. 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems 25

 Local Protection via a
Bypass Tunnel
R2 R9
R4
R8
R3

R1

R5
R10

R6 R7

Bypass Tunnel

Primary Paths

Backup Paths
Traffic Eng. 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems 26
 Path Protection
R2 R9
R4
R8
R3

R1

R5
R10

R6 R7

Primary Path

Backup Path

Traffic Eng. 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems 27

 Summary

Traffic engineering provides the means to

Save transmission costs
Address routing deficiencies
Attack tactical network engineering problems
Provide better QoS
Making sure resource are available
Minimizing disruption

Traffic Eng. 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems 28

 Thank You

Traffic Engineering 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc. 29