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Cisco 12000/10700 v3.1.1 Router Manager User Guide
OL-4455-01
Chapter 15 MPLS Management
MPLS M anagement Workf low
The signi ficant difference between M PLS an d traditio nal WAN techn ologie s is the way label s 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
rerout ing ar ound l ink a nd no de fail ur es, a nd so on.
Packet forwardi ng in MPL S is in st ark c ontra st t o toda y’s connection l ess ne twork environment, whe re
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 suppo rting M PLS is a Label Swit ch Router, or LSR. An edge nod e is an LSR connec ting 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 in gress LSR, and ultimately removed by the egre ss 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 labe l. For Frame Relay, the DLCI is the
label.
MPLS technology also helps deliver highly scalable, differentiated end-to-end IP services with simpler
configurati on, mana gement , and provisio ning for bot h Intern et provider s and subscri bers.
The Cisco 12000/107 20 Router Manag er foc uses on providing basic tr oublesho oting capabilities for
MPLS con figuration set -up in t h e Ci sco 12000 a nd 10 720 Se rie s Ro uter s. Th e Ci sco 1200 0/107 20
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.
•Creatio n and association of VRFs.
•Fault Manageme nt for VRFs.
•MPLS trap management.
MPLS Management Work flow
The MPL S Mana gement workflows covered in this ch apter a re:
•MPLS Forwa rding Info rmat ion
•Fault Manageme nt for MPLS LSR Interfaces
–
MPLS Int erface Status
–
MPLS Int erface Informa tion
•Perfo rmanc e Ma nag eme nt for MP LS LS R Inte rface s
–
MPLS Int erface Perform ance
•Fault Manage ment for MPLS LDP
–
MPLS LDP Entity Status Window
–
MPLS LDP Hello Adjacencies
–
MPLS LDP Peer Status
•Fault Manage ment for MPLS Traffic En gineer ing
–
MPLS Tunnel Information