Label Distribution Protocol

Sudhir Chadha
Divisional Engineer(DX)
Tel:+91-0120-2728429(O)
+91-0120-2728440(R)
E-mail: sudhirchadha@bsnl.in
 Label Distribution Protocols
 Label distribution protocol is a set of
rules and procedures that one LSR
can use to inform another LSR about
which label will be used to to forward
MPLS traffic between and through
them
 The path set up by these bilateral
agreement is called label switched
path (LSP)
ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 2
 Label Distribution Protocols
 MPLS architecture does not assume a
single label distribution protocol.
 A number of protocols have been
standarised
 Label Distribution Protocol

LDP
 Constraint-based Routing with LDP

CR-LDP
 RSVP with TE extensions

RSVP-TE
 Distributing labels with BGP-4
ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 3
 Label Distribution Protocol
Upstream Net: 10.0.0.0 Net: 10.0.0.0 Downstream Net:
LDP peer
LSR Label: 52 LDP peer 10.0.0.0
Label: 17 Label: 29
3 1 4 5 2 3

MPLS Table MPLS Table MPLS Table

In Out Advertise In Out Receive In Out
(3, 35) (1, 17) incoming outgoing
(4, 17) (5, 52) (2, 52) (3, 29)
label label

 Labels assigned by downstream

peer
 Limitations

LSPs follow the conventional IGP
path
ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 4

 Label Distribution Protocol
 Set of procedures and messages by which
LSRs create LSPs through a network by
mapping network layer routing information
directly to data link layer switched paths
 LSPs may have their end point
 At a directly attached LSR
 At a network egress LSR i.e. number of LSRs
away
 A FEC be defined for each of the LSP
 Each EFC contains one or more FEC
elements
 Each element identifies which set of
incoming packetsALTTC/DX/SC/LDP
will be mapped to an LSP
5
 LDP Messages
 LDP communicate using messages
 There are 4 categories of LDP messages
 Discovery Messages
 Announce and maintain the presence of an LSR
 Session Messages

Establish, maintain and terminate session between
LDP peers
 Advertisement Messages

Create, change and delete label mappings for FECs
 Notification Messages

Advisory and signal error notification

ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 6
 LDP Messages
 Discovery messages provide a mechanism
by which the LSRs indicate their presence
in a network by sending Hello message
periodically
 This is transmitted as a UDP packet
 When an LSR chooses to establish a
session with another LSR learned via Hello
message, uses LDP initialisation procedure
over TCP transport
 When multiple sessions are required
between two LSRs there is one TCP session
ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 7
 LDP Messages
 Upon successful completion of the
initialisation procedure, the two LSRs are
LDP peers and may exchange
advertisement messages
 LDP peers communicate over an LDP
session created between them
 An LSP can be viewed as a series of LDP
peers and their associated sessions
 Correct operation of LDP requires reliable
and in order delivery of messages
 Uses the TCP transport for Session,
Advertisement and Notification messages(Port-
646) ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 8
LDP Messages

A LDP Discovery Msg Session Msgs

T UDP TCP

N IP

D To/From Physical Layer

ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 9
LDP Messages & Codes
S.No. Message Name Message
Value
1. Notification 0001H
2. Hello 0100H
3. Intialisation 0200H
4. Keep Alive 0201H
5. Address 0300H
6. Address Withdraw 0301H
7. Label Mapping 0400H
8. Label Request 0401H
9. Label Withdraw 0402H
10. Label Release 0403H
11. Label Abort 0404H
Request
ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 10
 LDP Message Exchange
 LDP message exchanges are accomplished
by sending LDP protocol data units (PDUs)
over LDP session TCP connections
 Each LDP PDU can carry one or more
messages
 Messages in an LDP PDU need not be
related to one another
LDP Header LDP Msg#1 LDP Msg#2 LDP Msg#N
LDP PDU

ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 11
LDP PDU Message Format

LDP Header LDP Msg#1 LDP Msg#2 LDP Msg#N

LDP PDU

Octet-0 Octet-1 Octet-2 Octet-3

VERSION LENGTH
LDP IDENTIFIER
LDP IDENTIFIER

ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 12
 LDP Header (10Bytes)
 Version(2B)
 Present version is 1
 Length(2B)
 Total PDU length in octets
 Exclusive of the version and length fields
 Negotiated during session intialisation
 Maximum allowable length is 4096 Bytes

ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 13
 LDP Header (10Bytes)
 LDP Identifier(6B)
 Uniquely identifies the label space of
the sending LSR
 Router ID (4B)
 Identifies the LSR and must be a globally
unique value

Router ID is the IP address of this LSR
 Label Space ID (2B)
 Identifies the label space within the LSR

ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 14
 LDP Message Format
Octet-0 Octet-1 Octet-2 Octet-3
U MESSAGE TYPE MESSAGE LENGTH
MESSAGE ID
MANDATORY PARAMETERS
OPTIONAL PARAMETERS

 U bit-Unknown message bit

 Upon receipt of an unknown message, if
 U=0, a notification must be returned to the
message originator
 U=1, the unknown message is silently
ignored and the rest of message is
processed
ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 15
 LDP Messages
 Message Type (15 b)
 Identifies the type of message
 Message Length (2B)
 Length in octets of the Message ID, Mandatory
Parameters & Optional Parameters
 Message ID (4B)
 Notification messages, if to be sent, in
response to this message carry this value back
in the Status TLV
 Mandatory Parameters-Variable
 Optional Parameters-Variable
ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 16
 Type-Length-Value Encoding
 LDP messages carry information,
encoded in Type-Length-Value (TLV)
format
Octet-0 Octet-1 Octet-2 Octet-3
UF TYPE LENGTH
VALUE ……………..

LDP Header LDP Msg#1 LDP Msg#2 LDP Msg#N

LDP PDU

ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 17
 Type-Length-Value Encoding
 U bit-Unknown TLV bit
 Upon receipt of an unknown TLV, if

U=0, a notification must be returned to the message
originator and ENTIRE message must be ignored

U=1, the unknown TLV is silently ignored and the rest
of message is processed
 F bit-Forward Unknown TLV bit
 Applies only when U=1, if
 F=0, the unknown TLV is NOT forwarded with the
containing message
 F=1, the unknown TLV is forwarded with the
containing message

ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 18
 Type-Length-Value Encoding
 Type (14b)
 Identifies the various message types
 Length (2B)
 Length in octets of ONLY the value field
 Value-Variable
 String of octets that encodes the
information
 TLVs can be nested i.e. Value field itself
may contain further TLV encodings
ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 19
 LDP OPERATION
 LDP Discovery
 Session Establishment
 Label Distribution
 Error Notification

ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 20
 LDP Discovery
 LDP discovery is a mechanism that enables
an LSR to discover potential LDP peers
 Basic discovery

To discover LSR neighbors that are directly connected
at the link level

LSR periodically sends LDP link hellos out the
interface as UDP packets using group multicast
address
 Extended discovery

To discover LSRs that are not directly connected at
the link level

LSR periodically sends LDP targeted hellos as UDP
packets to a specific address
ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 21
 Hello Message

0 0 0X0400 LENGTH
HOLD TIME T R RESERVED

Octet-0 Octet-1 Octet-2 Octet-3

0 HELLO (0100H) MESSAGE LENGTH
MESSAGE ID
COMMON HELLO PARAMETERS (TLV)
OPTIONAL PARAMETERS

ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 22
 Hello Message
 Hold Time-Seconds
 0000-Default time of 15 sec for Link Hello and
45 sec for Targeted Hello
 FFFF-Means infinite
 T-Bit-Target Hello Bit
 0-Link Hello
 1-Targeted Hello
 R-Bit-Request Send Target Hello
 0-No Request
 1-Request the receiver to send Target Hello

ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 23
 LDP Discovery
 LSR receiving hellos from another
LSR maintains a hello adjacency
 If the parameters contained in the
hello are acceptable
 LSRs proceed for LDP session
establishment
 If the parameters contained in the
hello are not acceptable
 LSRs ignore it and LDP session can not
be established
ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 24
 LDP Session Establishment
 Session establishment is a 2 step process:
 Transport connection establishment
 Session intialisation
 Transport connection establishment
 TCP connection will be established for a new
LDP session by the Active LSR
 LSRs will compare the Transport Address
exchanged in the optional parameter of Hellos
 The LSR with greater Transport Address will
become Active LSR
 If NO Transport Addresses are negotiated LSR
with greater Router ID will become Active LSR
ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 25
 LDP Session Establishment
 Session intialisation
 Active LSR starts negotiating session
parameters by exchanging LDP intialisation
messages

LDP Protocol version

Label Distribution Method

Timer Values etc.
 If the parameters are acceptable the session is
established and keep-alive messages are
periodically exchanged
 If the parameters are NOT acceptable the
session can not be established and TCP
connection is closed
ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 26
 Initialisation Message

0 0 0x0500 LENGTH
PROTOCOL VERSION KEEP ALIVE TIME
A D RESERVED PV LIMIT MAXIMUM PDU LENGTH
RECEIVER LDP IDENTIFIER
RECEIVER LDP IDENTIFIER

Octet-0 Octet-1 Octet-2 Octet-3

0 INITIALISATION (0200H) MESSAGE LENGTH
MESSAGE ID
COMMON SESSION PARAMETERS (TLV)
OPTIONAL PARAMETERS

ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 27
 Initialisation Message
 Protocol Version (2B)
 LDP protocol version
 Keep-alive Time (2B)
 Time in seconds that may elapse between the
receipt of successive PDUs from the LDP peer
on the session TCP connection
 A-Bit-Label Advertisement Discipline
 0-Downstream Unsolicited Advertisement
 1-Downstream on demand
 D-Bit-Loop Detection
 0-Loop Detection Disabled
 1-Loop Detection enabled
ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 28
 Initialisation Message
 PV Limit-Path Vector Limit (1B)
 Configured maximum path vector length
 Must be 0 if loop detection is disabled
 Maximum PDU Length (2B)
 Maximum allowable length for LDP PDUs
 Default is <=255 Octets
 Maximum is 4096 Octets
 Maximum PDU Length (2B)
 Identifies the receiver’s label space
 This together with sender’s LDP identifier in the
PDU header enables the receiver to match the
initialisation message with its hello adjacencies
ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 29
 LDP Session Monitoring
 LDP includes mechanism to monitor
the integrity of LDP session
 An LSR maintains a Keep-Alive timer
for each peer session
 If Keep-Alive timer expires without
receipt of an LDP-PDU, LDP session is
terminated and TCP connection is
closed

ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 30
 Keep Alive Message
 An LSR must arrange that its peer
receive an protocol message or a
Keep-Alive message from it at least
every Keep-Alive timer

Octet-0 Octet-1 Octet-2 Octet-3

0 KEEPALIVE (0201H) MESSAGE LENGTH
MESSAGE ID
OPTIONAL PARAMETERS

ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 31
 LDP Identifiers & NH Addresses
 An LSR maintains learned labels in a
LIB (Label Information Base)
 When the next hop for a prefix
changes the LSR must retrieve the
label advertised by the new next hop
from the LIB for use in forwarding
 To enable LSRs to map between a
peer LDP identifier and the peer’s
addresses, LSRs advertise their
addresses using LDP Address and
Address Withdraw messages
ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 32
 Address Message
 An LSR sends the address message
to advertise its interface addresses
0 0 0X0101 LENGTH
ADDRESS FAMILY ADDRESSES
ADDRESSES
ADDRESSES

Octet-0 Octet-1 Octet-2 Octet-3

0 ADDRESS (0300H) MESSAGE LENGTH
MESSAGE ID
ADDRESS LIST (TLV)
OPTIONAL PARAMETERS

ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 33
 Address Withdraw Message
 An LSR sends to withdraw previously
advertised interface addresses
0 0 0X0101 LENGTH
ADDRESS FAMILY ADDRESSES
ADDRESSES
ADDRESSES

Octet-0 Octet-1 Octet-2 Octet-3

0 ADDRESS WITHDRAW (0301H) MESSAGE LENGTH
MESSAGE ID
ADDRESS LIST (TLV)
OPTIONAL PARAMETERS

ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 34
 LDP Label Distribution
 MPLS label distribution and
management can be done in 2 ways
 Downstream on Demand Label
Distribution
 FEC-Label bindings are distributed in
response to an explicit request from another
LSR
 Downstream Unsolicited
 FEC-Label bindings are distributed to LSRs
that have not explicitly requested them
 Both of these techniques may be
ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 35
 LDP Label Distribution
 Each interface on an LSR is configured to
operate in either Downstream on Demand
Label Distribution or Downstream
Unsolicited
 For any given session, each LSR must be
aware of the label distribution method
used by its peer
 LSRs exchange advertisement modes
during initialisation
 Label Request and Label Mapping
messages are exchanged for label
distribution
 Loop Detection ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP
mechanism is used 36to
 Label Distribution
 Label Request Message
 An upstream LSR sends this message to
a downstream LDP peer to assign and
advertise a binding (mapping) for a FEC
 Label Mapping Message
 A downstream LSR sends this message
to the upstream LSR for a FEC
 An LSR receiving this message should
not use the label for forwarding unless
its routing table contains an entry that
exactly matches the FEC element
ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 37
 Label Distribution
 Label Abort Request Message
 An upstream LSR sends this message to
abort an outstanding Label Request
Message for FEC sent to downstream
LSR
 Label Withdraw Message
 A downstream LSR sends this message
to an upstream LSR that the peer may
not continue to use specific FEC-Label
mappings the LSR had previously
advertised ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 38
 Label Distribution
 Label Release Message
 An upstream LSR sends this message to
a downstream LSR that the peer no
longer needs specific FEC-Label
mappings previously requested

ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 39
 Label Request Message

0 0 0X0100 LENGTH
FEC ELEMENT-1
…………………..
FEC ELEMENT-N

Octet-0 Octet-1 Octet-2 Octet-3

0 LABEL REQUEST (0401H) MESSAGE LENGTH
MESSAGE ID
FEC (TLV)
OPTIONAL PARAMETERS

ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 40
 Label Mapping Message
0 0 0X0100 LENGTH
FEC ELEMENT-1
…………………..
FEC ELEMENT-N

0 0 0X0200 LENGTH
LABEL

Octet-0 Octet-1 Octet-2 Octet-3

0 LABEL MAPPING (0400H) LENGTH
MESSAGE ID
FEC (TLV)
LABEL (TLV)
OPTIONAL PARAMETERS
ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 41
 Label Abort Message
0 0 0X0100 LENGTH
FEC ELEMENT-1
…………………..
FEC ELEMENT-N

0 0 0X0200 LENGTH
LABEL

Octet-0 Octet-1 Octet-2 Octet-3

LABEL ABORT REQUEST
0 MESSAGE LENGTH
(0404H)
MESSAGE ID
FEC (TLV)
LABEL REQUEST MESSAGE ID (TLV)
OPTIONAL PARAMETERS

ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 42
 Label Withdraw Message
0 0 0X0100 LENGTH
FEC ELEMENT-1
…………………..
FEC ELEMENT-N

0 0 0X0200 LENGTH
LABEL

Octet-0 Octet-1 Octet-2 Octet-3

LABEL ABORT REQUEST
0 MESSAGE LENGTH
(0402H)
MESSAGE ID
FEC (TLV)
LABEL (TLV)-Optional
OPTIONAL PARAMETERS

ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 43
 Label Release Message
0 0 0X0100 LENGTH
FEC ELEMENT-1
…………………..
FEC ELEMENT-N

0 0 0X0200 LENGTH
LABEL

Octet-0 Octet-1 Octet-2 Octet-3

0 LABEL RELEASE (0403H) LENGTH
MESSAGE ID
FEC (TLV)
LABEL (TLV)-Optional
OPTIONAL PARAMETERS
ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 44
 Loop Detection Mechanism
 Loop detection is a configurable option
 Path Vector TLV

A message propagated by an LSR adds its LSR ID to
the path vector list

An LSR receiving a message containing its LSR ID
detects that the message has traversed a loop

Also an LSR that detects a path vector has reached
the maximum configured length treats as if the
message has traversed a loop
 Hop Count TLV

A message propagated by an LSR increments the hop
count

An LSR that detects a hop count has reached the
configured value treats as if the message has
traversed a loop ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 45
 Label Distribution Control Mode
 The behavior of the initial setup of
LSPs is determined by the label
distribution control mode
 Independent Label Distribution Control

Each LSR may advertise label mappings to
its neighbor at any time without waiting for a
label mapping from the next hop
 Ordered Label Distribution Control

The LSR must wait until a label from a
downstream LSR is received before mapping
the FEC and passing corresponding labels to
upstream LSRs
ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 46
 Label Retention Mode
 Specifies whether an LSR maintains a label
binding for a FEC learned from a neighbor
that is not its next hop for the FEC
 Conservative Label Retention Mode
 Label mapping advertisements of all routes are
received from all peers but only those mappings will
be retained which will be used to forward packets
 Liberal Label Retention Mode
 Label mapping advertisements of all routes are
received and retained from all peers regardless of
whether the LSR is the next hop for the advertising
mapping

ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 47
 Error Notification
 Sent by LSR to inform LDP peer of a
significant event
 Two types of Notification Messages
 Error Notification

Signal fatal errors
 Expiration of a keep-alive timer
 Shutdown by a node
 Failure of an LSP session initialisation
 Advisory Notification
 Outcome of processing an LDP message
 State of the LDP session
ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 48
 Notification Message
 Status TLV
 Indicates the event being signaled
 Malformed PDU
 Malformed TLV
 Expiry of Session Keep-alive Timer

Unilateral Session Shutdown ……….
Octet-0 Octet-1 Octet-2 Octet-3
0 NOTIFICATION (0001H) LENGTH
MESSAGE ID
STATUS (TLV)
OPTIONAL PARAMETERS

ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 49
 Notification Message

E F STATUS DATA

UF STATUS LENGTH
STATUS CODE
MESSAGE ID
MESSAGE TYPE

Octet-0 Octet-1 Octet-2 Octet-3

0 NOTIFICATION (0001H) LENGTH
MESSAGE ID
STATUS (TLV)
OPTIONAL PARAMETERS

ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 50
 Notification Message
 Status TLV
 U-Bit

0-Status TLV is sent in notification message

1-Status TLV is sent in some other message
 F-Bit

Same as F-Bit in Status Code field
 Status Code
 E-Bit- Fatal Error Bit
 0-Advisory Notification
 1-Fatal Error Notification
 F-Bit- Forward Bit

0-Notification should not be forwarded

1-Notification should be forwarded to the NH LSR
ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 51
ALTTC/DX/SC/LDP 52