Alcatel-Lucent MTU Calculation

A Refresher

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Types of MTU on the 7X50

Port MTU: This MTU governs how large packets can be that fit on a given
physical wire.

Service MTU: This MTU is associated with the service and governs how

large packets can be that are sent from the customer across the service.

SDP Path MTU: This is the MTU of the SDP between the service

endpoints. This MTU governs how large packets can be that are sent over
the SDP.

VC-MTU: MTU negotiated by T-LDP and is maximum IP payload size that

can be carried inside the tunnel. Derived from Service MTU.

IP-MTU: Can be used in IES and VPRN interfaces for spoke-SDP

terminations. Should be equal to the VC-MTU of the spoked Epipe/VPLS.

LSP Path MTU: MTU value that is negotioated by RSVP path/resv

messages. The value is derived from the Port MTU of the network port,
special case: ADSPEC. Not covered here.

OSPF MTU: MTU size negotiated by OSPF, derived from Port MTU or
administratively set. Not covered here.

First 4 are important to get Services in Operational state UP

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There is an MTU associated with all of the data links on the 7X50. This includes both
physical circuits and pseudo wires. Pseudo wires can be built with either MPLS or GRE
on the 7X50. They are used to make the epipe and VPLS services work.
Service MTUs have to match in order for spoke or mesh sdps to come up operationally
even if sdp MTUs are matching. Pay special attention in the case of spoke-sdp to an IES
service from a VPLS service.
To alleviate headaches and give room for future growth, a service provider should select
a large backbone MTU and set it on all links internal to their backbone. The selected
MTU needs to be supported on all platforms in the backbone. The POS MTU of 4470 is a
suggested minimum. A better value would be a nice large round number such as 9000.
9000 is supported by most vendors, and would allow the offering of a premium jumboframe service to those customers who want it of 8000 or more bytes.
If your network supports it 9100 or 9200 would also be good values, since they would
probably allow you to offer a jumbo frame service up to 9000 bytes.
LSP MTU is derived from the network port MTU: in case of ethernet null encapsulation
the LSP MTU = port MTU 14. Cannot be configured. ADSPEC can be set in which case
LSP MTU is adapted to weakest link (lowest MTU) in the path.
OSPF MTU can be set under the OSPF interface configuration

L2 Services Visualizing MTUs (Ethernet example)

Optional (Null/dot1Q/QinQ)
(will be stripped)

No fragmentation possible
DA

DA

SA

Ether
802.1q
Type

SA

payload

FCS

Access Port MTU

Ether
Type

payload

FCS

Service MTU

Network
Interface
Port
MTU

(*)

DA

SA

VC-MTU

SDP
Path MTU

Ether Path
VC
Type Label Label

DA

SA

Service MTU

Ether
Type

payload

Access
Interface
Port
MTU

FCS

SDP Path MTU

Network Port MTU

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The Physical MTU on an Ethernet access interface needs to be set to at least:

1514 with mode-access and encap-type null
1500 + 14 DLC header
1518 with mode-access and encap-type dot1q
1500 + 14 DLC header + 4 dot1q tag
1522 with mode-access and encap-type qinq
1500 + 14 DLC + 4 (first q-tag) + 4 (second q-tag)
(*) REMARK: If the network interface is dot1q encapsulated, an extra 4 bytes are needed
for the q-tag

Access Port MTU/Service MTU on the 7X50

Access Port MTU:

 should be equal or larger than Service MTU + port encapsulation overhead (0 for Null, 4 Dot1q,
8 QinQ Ethernet example)
 configure port x/x/x ethernet mtu [512..9212] bytes
 default 1514 for Null, 1518 for Dot1Q, 1522 for QinQ
 show port

Service MTU:
 This is the value to start from: it is the max payload (IP + Ethernet) the service should be able to
offer to the client (FCS not calcualetd)
 configure service [vpls|[e|a|i|f]pipe] service-mtu [1..9194] bytes
 default 1514
 show service id x base
 Remark: not used in L3 services

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Remarks:
Access Port MTU:
For the Service to get to Operational state UP, at least 1 SAP is needed that is in
Operational State UP
If the Access port MTU < (Service MTU Encapsulation overhead), the access
port will be in Operational DOWN status
Service MTU:
if Service MTU might not be configured, default value is 1514 (see info detail)

SDP Path/VC-MTU on the 7X50

VC-MTU:
 derived from the Service MTU (Service MTU 14 Ethernet)
 This is the MTU value that will be negotiated by T-LDP and should match the other side
 show router ldp bindings (service-id <service-id>)

SDP Path MTU:

 MTU the SDP can carry

 by default not configured and is derived from Network Port MTU

 should not necessarily match on both sides of the SDP (*)
 should be equal or larger than service MTU
 should be equal or smaller than (Network Port MTU 2 labels ethernet header)(*)
 configure service sdp x path-mtu [576..9194] bytes
 show service id x base
 (*)REMARK: Its possible to configure the SDP Path MTU to a higher value than the one derived
from the Network Port MTU and service can get to Operational UP status

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Remark: VC-MTUs should match. SDP Path-MTU not necessarily: you can configure a
service with an SDP path MTU of 2000 on one end and an SDP path MTU of 3000 at the
other end: as long as the VC-MTUs match its OK.
(*) Remark: this is the case when no SDP keep-alives (default).

Layer 2 - Minimum Physical MTU on Network Interfaces (MPLS)

If a router needs to support services offering a 1514 byte service payload over
MPLS:

POS

Ethernet

Overhead

1514

1514

Service Payload

MPLS tag used as service ID

MPLS tag used for egress LSP

(4)

(4)

MPLS tag (if FRR bypass is used)

n/a

PPP MPLSCP Header

n/a

14

DLC Header

1524 (1528)

1536 (1540)

Total

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The Physical MTU on the network interfaces must be greater than the maximum service
MTU to be supported + largest encapsulation type used.
Similarly to the Network MTU, the Path MTU must be sufficient to support all services
which that path has to carry. The Path MTU is determined by the lowest of the MTU
along the path the service needs to transit.
For GRE tunnels, this value is set by the administrator, and it is assumed that reality
matches the config. To determine the minimum value supported the 7X50 supports the
oam sdp-mtu command.
For Signaled MPLS tunnels, the Path MTU is determined by the signaling exchange
(RSVP).
Remark: a 4th label can be used in case OAM VCCV is running over a bypass: a routeralert table is inserted between the Service and the Transport Label

Minimum Physical MTU on Network Interfaces (GRE)

If that router also had to support a similar service over GRE:

POS

Ethernet

Overhead

1514

1514

Service Payload

MPLS tag used as service ID

GRE Header

20

20

IP Header

n/a

PPP IPCP Header

n/a

14

DLC Header

1548

1560

Total

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Service MTU should be sufficient to support the service in question. For a service
running over a typical Ethernet access interface, this will be 1514 bytes. This comprises
the 1500 byte payload and the 14 byte DLC header. This is the same even if the access
interface is dot1q. This is because the dot1q header is stripped at ingress, and replaced
with the appropriate vlan tag at egress.
config>service>[epipe|vpls]> service-mtu [0..9194]

Show Service id X all

This command can be used to verify MTU
SR12# show service id 5500 all
=============================================================================
Service Detailed Information
=============================================================================
Service Id
: 5500
Vpn Id
: 5500
Service Type
: Epipe
Description
: Distributed epipe service to east coast
Customer Id
: 5 Last
Mgmt Change
: 07/14/2003 03:26:46
Adm
: Up
Oper
: Down
MTU
: 1514
SAP Count
:1
SDP Bind Count
:1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------Service Destination Points(SDPs)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------Sdp Id 2:123 -(10.10.10.104)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------Description
: GRE-10.10.10.104
SDP Id
: 2:123
Type
: Spoke
Admin Path MTU
: 4462
Oper Path MTU
: 4462
Far End
: 10.10.10.104
Delivery
: GRE
Admin State
: Up
Oper State
: TLDP Down
Ingress Label
: 6600
Egress Label
: 5500
Ingress Filter
: n/a
Egress Filter
: n/a
Last Changed
: 07/14/2003 03:29:21
Signaling
: TLDP

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The show service command allows the administrator to check the MTU that is configured and the
actual MTU that will be supported across the entire network connection. The above output is not
complete. Additional information is available including segment by segment MTU capabilities.
Syntax all
Context show>service>id service-id
Description Displays detailed information for all aspects of the service.
Admin Path MTU
The desired largest service frame size (in octets) that can be transmitted through this SDP to the
far-end router, without requiring the packet to be fragmented.
Oper Path MTU
The actual largest service frame size (in octets) that can be transmitted through this SDP to the
far-end router, without requiring the packet to be fragmented.

MTU Configuration Example

SAP 1/1/1
Encap: 100

Network
2/1/1

MTU Configuration Example Values

ALA-A
Access (SAP)
Port (slot/MDA/port) 1/1/1
Mode type
dot1q
MTU
1518

Network
3/1/1

SAP 4/1/1
Encap: Null

Network
2/1/1
network
1536

ALA-B
Network
3/1/1
network
1536

Access (SAP)
4/1/1
null
1514

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Configuration Example
In order for the maximum length service frame to successfully travel from a local ingress SAP to a
remote egress SAP, the MTU values configured on the local ingress SAP, the SDP (MPLS), and
the egress SAP must be coordinated to accept the maximum frame size the service can forward.
For example, the targeted MTU values to configure for a distributed Epipe service (ALA-A and
ALA-B) are displayed in the picture above.
Since ALA-A uses dot1q encapsulation, the SAP MTU must be set to 1518 to be able to accept a
1514 byte service frame (done by default/see Table 11 for MTU default values). Each SDP MTU
must be at least 1514 as well. If ALA-As network port (2/1/1) is configured as an Ethernet port
with a MPLS SDP running over it, the MTU value of network ports 2/1/1 and 3/1/1 must each be at
least 1536 bytes (1514 MTU + 8 bytes labels (2) + 14 Ethernet). In case FRR bypass is
configured, 1540 should be used. Finally, the MTU of ALAs SAP (access port 4/1/1) must be at
least 1514, as it uses null encap.

L3 Services Visualizing MTUs

Optional (Null/dot1Q/QinQ)
(will be stripped)
DA

SA

Ether
802.1q
Type

payload

FCS

Access Port MTU

payload

Network
Interface
Port
MTU

VC-MTU

SDP
Path MTU

Service MTU
IP-MTU

IES/VPRN
Access
Interface
Port
MTU

Fragmentation possible (see next slides)

DA

SA

Ether Path
VC
Type Label Label

payload

FCS

Network Port MTU

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Note:
-Theres no Service MTU concept IES/VPRN services
-Path MTU is not taken into consideration (but should be set to an appropriate value if
sdp-keepalives, sdp keepalive message-length is not configured and intermediate
transmission gear has MTU restrictions)
(*) Note: fragmentation on IP-MTU takes place in the direction from the
VPRN/IES interface towards the CE.
If the IP interface has a SAP defined, the operational MTU is the smaller of the
SAP MTU (port MTU normalized for the SAP encap) and the administrative IPMTU (normalized to the SAP encap) to set the IP interface operational IP-MTU. If
the IP interface has a spoke-SDP defined,the operational MTU is the smaller of
the SDP Path-MTU and the administrative IP-MTU (normalized to the spoke
encap) to set the operational IP-MTU for the IP interface.

10

VPRN Fragmentation toward network side

PE3

PE1
CE1

10.10.10.3

10.10.10.1

192.1.1.2
1/1/1

CE2
192.1.2.1

192.1.1.1
1/1/1

1/1/4

1/1/3

192.1.2.2

1/1/1

Port MTU 9212

1/1/1

Port MTU 9212

Port MTU 9212
Port MTU 1000

VPRN service
auto-bind ldp or gre

Port MTU 9212

Port MTU 1000

VPRN fragmenting toward network side based on network interface MTU

ce1# ping 192.1.2.2 source 192.1.1.2 do-not-fragment size x

MPLS:
GRE:
Note:

-> x can be max 938 (938 ICMP data + 8 ICMP header + 20 IP header
+ 20 (5 labels) + 14 Ether = 1000)
-> x can be max 930 (930 ICMP data + 8 ICMP header + 20 IP header + 8 GRE
+ 20 IP header + 14 Ether = 1000)

1) SDP path MTU is NOT taken into account

(SPD path MTU is exchanged via LDP whereas VPRNs use BGP to exchange service labels)

2) Pre 5.0 only 3 labels are counted in case of MPLS

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In pre-5.0 SW VPRN fragmenting toward network side is based on the lesser of (network
interface MTU 12) and sdp path MTU
The 12 takes into account 3 labels: Transport label, (possible:) Bypass label and Service
Label.
As off 5.0 5 labels are taken into account (Transport, Bypass, Service, Router Alert,
LDPoRSVP), hence network port MTU 20
This is hard coded in the SW and cannot be changed.
Note: when pinging a destination with a given size (ping x.x.x.x size y) the size only
indicates the ICMP data size. Hence, the IP packet size is the size + 8 bytes ICMP
header + 20 bytes IP header. This is important to note when testing IP fragmentation with
ping traffic.

11

VPRN Fragmentation toward access side

PE3

PE1
CE1

10.10.10.3

10.10.10.1

192.1.1.2
1/1/1

1/1/1

CE2

192.1.2.1

192.1.1.1
1/1/4

1/1/3

VPRN service

1/1/1

192.1.2.2
1/1/1

Change:
ip-mtu
port-MTU

VPRN fragmenting toward access side based on lesser of:

VPRN interface ip-mtu
acces port MTU ether encapsulation overhead
ce1# ping 192.1.2.2 source 192.1.1.2 do-not-fragment size x
VPRN interface ip-mtu = 600
ip-mtu = 600
access port MTU ether encap = 1514 - 14 = 1500
no port MTU (1514)

-> x can be max 572 (572 ICMP data + 8 ICMP header + 20 IP header = 600)

no ip-mtu
port MTU 600

VPRN interface ip-mtu not configured = 600 (port MTU) 14 ether header = 586
access port MTU ether encap = 600 - 14 = 586
-> x can be max 558 (558 ICMP data + 8 ICMP header + 20 IP header = 586)
NOTE: even if you configure ip-mtu to a higher value, fragmentation will take place at 586
in this case
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Note that in this example ethernet encapsulation is NULL.

Note: when pinging a destination with a given size (ping x.x.x.x size y) the size only
indicates the ICMP data size. Hence, the IP packet size is the size + 8 bytes ICMP
header + 20 bytes IP header. This is important to note when testing IP fragmentation with
ping traffic.

12

Epipe spoke-SDP termination into IES service

Epipe terminates in IES Service
Optional (Null/dot1Q/QinQ)
(will be stripped)
DA

DA

SA

Ether
802.1q
Type

SA

payload

FCS

Access Port MTU

Ether
Type

payload

FCS

Service MTU

Network
Interface
Port
MTU

VC-MTU

SDP
Path MTU

Service MTU
IP-MTU

IES
Access
Interface
Port
MTU

Fragmentation possible on IES/VPRN IP-MTU(*)

DA

SA

Ether Path
VC
Type Label Label

DA

SA

Ether
Type

payload

FCS

SDP Path MTU

Network Port MTU

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The Physical MTU on an Ethernet access interface needs to be set to at least:

1514 with mode-access and encap-type null
1500 + 14 DLC header
1518 with mode-access and encap-type dot1q
1500 + 14 DLC header + 4 dot1q tag
1522 with mode-access and encap-type qinq
1500 + 14 DLC + 4 (first q-tag) + 4 (second q-tag)
(*) Note: fragmentation on IP-MTU takes place in the direction from the
VPRN/IES interface towards the CE.
If the IP interface has a SAP defined, the operational MTU is the smaller of the
SAP MTU (port MTU normalized for the SAP encap) and the administrative IPMTU (normalized to the SAP encap) to set the IP interface operational IP-MTU. If
the IP interface has a spoke-SDP defined,the operational MTU is the smaller of
the SDP Path-MTU and the administrative IP-MTU (normalized to the spoke
encap) to set the operational IP-MTU for the IP interface.

(*) REMARK: If the network interface is dot1q encapsulated, an extra 4 bytes are needed
for the q-tag

13

Spoke-SDP termination: MTU Considerations

The Spoke SDP binding becomes only operationally up if the VC-MTU (signaled via TLDP ) of both
ends match

On the Epipe/VPLS side of the spoke the VC-MTU is derived from the configured service MTU
(Service MTU is 1514 by default)

On the IES/VPRN side of the spoke-SDP there is no Service MTU concept and the VC-MTU will be
equal with the configured operation ip-mtu value of the IES or VPRN interface. If the ip-mtu is not
explicitly configured, its value will be set to the SDP operational MTU minus ethernet header size (14)

The best way to fix this is to match the IES/VPRN interface IP-MTU to the VC-MTU from the other
side (show router ldp bindings)

Packets can be fragmented on the IP-MTU size

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