Cisco Systems 12000/10700 V3.1.1 manual Mpls Management Workflow, 15-2

Chapter 15 MPLS Management

MPLS Management Workflow

The significant difference between MPLS and traditional WAN technologies is the way labels are assigned and the capability to carry a stack of labels attached to a packet. The concept of a label stack enables new applications, such as Traffic Engineering (TE), Virtual Private Networks (VPN), fast rerouting around link and node failures, and so on.

Packet forwarding in MPLS is in stark contrast to today’s connection less network environment, where each packet is analyzed on a hop-by-hop basis, its Layer 3 header is checked, and an independent forwarding decision is made based on the information extracted from a network layer routing algorithm.

A router supporting MPLS is a Label Switch Router, or LSR. An edge node is an LSR connecting to a non-LSR. An ingress LSR is the one by which a packet enters the MPLS network, an egress LSR is one by which a packet leaves the MPLS network. Labels are small identifiers placed in the traffic. They are inserted by the ingress LSR, and ultimately removed by the egress LSR (so nothing will remain to perplex the non-MPLS devices outside the MPLS network). For IP-based MPLS, some bytes are inserted prior to the IP header. For ATM, the VPI/VCI addressing is the label. For Frame Relay, the DLCI is the label.

MPLS technology also helps deliver highly scalable, differentiated end-to-end IP services with simpler configuration, management, and provisioning for both Internet providers and subscribers.

The Cisco 12000/10720 Router Manager focuses on providing basic troubleshooting capabilities for MPLS configuration set-up in the Cisco 12000 and 10720 Series Routers. The Cisco 12000/10720 Router Manager provides the following MPLS functionality:

•Fault Management for LSR Interfaces, Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) entities and MPLS tunnels.

•Performance Management for MPLS enabled interfaces.

•Creation and association of VRFs.

•Fault Management for VRFs.

•MPLS trap management.

MPLS Management Workflow

The MPLS Management workflows covered in this chapter are:

•MPLS Forwarding Information

•Fault Management for MPLS LSR Interfaces

–MPLS Interface Status

–MPLS Interface Information

•Performance Management for MPLS LSR Interfaces

–MPLS Interface Performance

•Fault Management for MPLS LDP

–MPLS LDP Entity Status Window

–MPLS LDP Hello Adjacencies

–MPLS LDP Peer Status

•Fault Management for MPLS Traffic Engineering

–MPLS Tunnel Information

Cisco 12000/10700 v3.1.1 Router Manager User Guide

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