Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a mechanism in high-performance telecommunications

networks that directs data from one network node to the next based on short path labels rather than
long network addresses, avoiding complex lookups in a routing table. It is a mechanism used to
transfer data across large data/voice/video networks.

Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a protocol-agnostic routing technique designed to

speed up and shape traffic flows across wide area- and service provider- networks.

MPLS is considered a layer 2.5 networking protocol. Layer 2 carries IP packets over
simple LANs or point-to-point WANs, while layer 3 uses internet-wide addressing and
routing using IP protocols. MPLS sits in between, with additional features for data
transport across the network. MPLS allows most data packets to be forwarded
at Layer 2 -- the switching level -- of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI)
model, rather than having to be passed up to Layer 3 -- the routing level. For
this reason, it is often informally described as operating at Layer 2.5.

MPLS is a packet-forwarding technology which uses labels to make data forwarding decisions. The

biggest advantage using MPLS is that the Layer 3 header analysis is done just once (when the packet

enters the MPLS domain). Intermediate routers will not analyze the IP packet, thus saving valuable

router resources, and greatly increasing the speed at which packets are forwarded. Label inspection

drives subsequent packet forwarding. Further MPLS supports following applications:

1. Virtual Private Networking (VPN)

2. Traffic Engineering (TE)

3. Quality of Service (QoS)

4. Any Transport over MPLS (AToM)

Additionally, it decreases the forwarding overhead on the core routers. MPLS technologies are
applicable to any network layer protocol. The labels identify virtual links (paths) between distant
nodes rather than endpoints. MPLS can encapsulate packets of various network protocols, hence
the "multiprotocol" reference on its name. MPLS supports a range of access technologies,
including T1/E1, ATM, Frame It is Multiprotocol as it
Relay, and DSL.
supports multiple protocols such as Internet Protocol (IP),
Asynchronous Transport Mode (ATM) and Frame Relay
network protocols.
MPLS replaces old technology that relied on routing tables and frame relay protocols. It’s
commonly used in private networks. It’s also implemented by your internet service provider. It’s
faster, more efficient, and works at lower OSI model layers. If you plan to use any VoIP
solutions, you will probably use MLPS technology.
MPLS was created in the late 1990s as a more efficient alternative to
traditional Internet Protocol (IP) routing, which requires
each router to independently determine a packet's next hop by
inspecting the packet's destination IP address before consulting its
own routing table. This process consumes time and hardware
resources, potentially resulting in degraded performance for real-
time applications, such as voice and video.
In an MPLS network, the first router to receive a packet determines the
packet's entire route upfront, the identity of which is quickly conveyed to
subsequent routers using a label in the packet header.

How MPLS works

Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) converts routed network to something closer to a switched
network and offers information transfer speeds that are not available in a traditional IP-routed
network. Instead of forwarding packets on a hop-by-hop basis, paths are established for particular
source-destination pairs. The predetermined paths that make MPLS work are called label-switched
paths (LSPs).

MPLS network contains

Routers in a LSP: Each router in LSP performs the following functions.
Label Switch Routers(LSR). These routers are capable of understanding MPLS

labels and of receiving and transmitting the labeled packet.

Label Switch Paths(LSP)

A label Switch Path(LSP) can be defined as the sequence of label switch

routers(LSR) that transmit the packet within an MPLS network. Basically, LSP
is a predefined path that the packet takes during the transmission. The first
LSR in an LSP is an Ingress LSR, similarly the last LSR in an LSP is an Egress
router followed by intermediate LSR’s in between.The main takeaway from
here is that in IP forwarding there is no fixed path that a packet must follow
whereas in MPLS forwarding we predefine the path ie the LSP’s which must
be followed during the packet transmission.The paths, which are called label-
switched paths (LSPs), enable service providers to decide ahead of time the
best way for certain types of traffic to flow within a private or public network.

There are three kinds of Label Switch Routers present in the MPLS Network:-

1. When a packet enters the network through a Label Edge Router (also known as
an “ingress node”), it is assigned to a Forwarding Equivalence Class (FEC),
depending on the type of data and its intended destination. FECs are used to
 identify packets with similar or identical characteristics.Based on the FEC, the
ingress node will apply a label to the packet and encapsulate it inside an
LSP.Ingress router-the router at the beginning of an LSP. This router encapsulates IP packets
with an MPLS Layer 2 frame and forwards it to the next router in the path. Each LSP can have
only one ingress router. Ingress LSR: These routers are present at the
beginning of the MPLS network. Their job is to receive unlabeled IP
packet and push the label on top of it. In an MPLS network, each packet
gets labeled on entry into the service provider's network by
the ingress router, also known as the label edge router (LER). This is also the
router that decides the LSP the packet will take until it reaches its destination
address.

Egress router-The router at the end of an LSP. This router removes the MPLS encapsulation, thus
transforming it from an MPLS packet to an IP packet, and forwards the packet to its final
destination using information in the IP forwarding table. Each LSP can have only one egress
router. The ingress and egress routers in an LSP cannot be the same router. These routers
are present at the end of the MPLS network. Their job is to pop the label
from the incoming packet and forward the packet as an IP packet.

MPLS router designations include:

• LSR (Label Switch Router) – responsible for forwarding packets through the provider core based on
the packet’s label. Cisco refers to this as a P (provider) router.

• Edge LSR (Label Edge Router) – responsible for adding or removing labels from packets. Cisco refers to
this as a PE (provider edge) router.

• Non-Label Routers – Cisco refers to this as C (customer) routers

Transit router-any intermediate router in the LSP between the ingress and egress routers. Transit
router forwards received MPLS packets to the next router in the MPLS path. An LSP can contain
zero or more transit routers, up to a maximum of 253 transit routers in a single LSP.
Intermediate LSR: These routers are present in between the above two
routers. Their job is to receive the labeled packet, swap the label of the
packet and forward it to the next hop. They are responsible for the MPLS
forwarding of the packet.

Ingress and Egress are also known as Edge Routers.Thus at any particular
router, either of the three steps PUSH, POP or SWAP of the label takes place.
When an LSR receives a packet, it performs one or more of the following
actions:

 Push: Adds a label. This is typically performed by the ingress router.

 Swap: Replaces a label. This is usually performed by LSRs between
the ingress and egress routers.

 Pop: Removes a label. This is most often done by the egress router.

LSRs perform the following functions:

• Control Plane - exchanges routing and label information

• Data Plane - forwards actual packets based on label information The Control Plane, in charge of
information exchange, builds and maintains the following tables

: • Routing Table – routing information is exchanged between LSRs using a routing protocol, such as
IGRP, EIGRP, IS-IS, OSPF, or BGP.

• Label Information Base (LIB) – label information is exchanged between LSRs using a label protocol,
such as LDP (Label Distribution Protocol) or TDP (Tag Distribution Protocol) LDP is now default on Cisco
devices, and uses TCP port 646. TDP is a Cisco-proprietary label protocol, and uses TCP port 711. Label
convergence will occur after routing convergence is completed. Label protocols require the underlying
routing infrastructure in order to function. The Data Plane, in charge of information forwarding,
maintains the following tables:

• The CEF Forwarding Information Base (FIB) –for forwarding unlabeled packets. Contains destination IP
networks, and the Layer-2 address of the next-hop router.

• Label Forwarding Information Base (LFIB) – for forwarding labeled packets.

MPLS is scalable and protocol-independent. In an MPLS network, data packets are assigned
labels. Packet-forwarding decisions are made solely on the contents of this label, without the
need to examine the packet itself. This allows one to create end-to-end circuits across any
type of transport medium, using any protocol. The primary benefit is to eliminate dependence
on a particular OSI model data link layer (layer 2) technology, such as Asynchronous
Transfer Mode (ATM), Frame Relay, Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET) or Ethernet,
and eliminate the need for multiple layer-2 networks to satisfy different types of traffic.
Multiprotocol label switching belongs to the family of packet-switched networks.
2. MPLS operates at a layer that is generally considered to lie between traditional definitions of
OSI Layer 2 (data link layer) and Layer 3 (network layer), and thus is often referred to as
a layer 2.5 protocol. It was designed to provide a unified data-carrying service for
both circuit-based clients and packet-switching clients which provide a datagram service
model. It can be used to carry many different kinds of traffic, including IP packets, as well as
native ATM, SONET, and Ethernet frames.
 3. A number of different technologies were previously deployed with essentially identical goals,
such as Frame Relay and ATM. Frame Relay and ATM use "labels" to move frames or cells
throughout a network. The header of the Frame Relay frame and the ATM cell refers to
the virtual circuit that the frame or cell resides on. The similarity between Frame Relay, ATM,
and MPLS is that at each hop throughout the network, the “label” value in the header is
changed. This is different from the forwarding of IP packets.[2] MPLS technologies have
evolved with the strengths and weaknesses of ATM in mind. MPLS is designed to have lower
overhead than ATM while providing connection-oriented services for variable-length frames,
and has replaced much use of ATM in the market. [3]
MPLS also offers a robust recovery framework [7] that goes beyond the simple protection rings
of synchronous optical networking (SONET/SDH).

1. MPLS works by prefixing packets with an MPLS header, containing one or more labels. This
is called a label stack. Each entry in the label stack contains four fields:

 Label: The label field is of 20 bits, hence the label could take values
from 0 to 2^20–1, or 1,048,575. However, the first 16 label values ie from
0 to 15 are exempted from normal use as they have a special meaning. A
20-bit label value. A label with the value of 1 represents the router alert label.

2. Experimental(Exp): The three bits are reserved as experimental bits.

They are used for Quality of Service(QoS).

3. Bottom of Stack(BoS): A network packet can have more than one

MPLS labels which are stacked one over another. To ensure which MPLS
label is at the bottom of stack we have a BoS field which is of 1 bit. The
bit is high (ie value 1) only when that particular label is at the bottom of
the stack otherwise its value remains 0.

4. Time to Live(TTL): The last 8 bits are used for Time to Live(TTL). This
TTL has the same function as the TTL present in the IP header. Its value is
simply decreased by 1 at each hop. The job of TTL is to avoid the packet
being stuck in the network by discarding the packet if its value
becomes zero.
SearchEnterpriseWAN defines MPLS as “a protocol for speeding up and shaping network
traffic flows”, which essentially means MPLS sorts and prioritizes your data packets (those
little tidbits of information travelling through the world wide web, kind of like toppings on
a hamburger) based on their class of service (e.g. IP phone, video, or skype data).

With pure IP (Internet Protocol) routing in a packet-switched network, each data packet could
determine its own path through the network – which was a dynamic flow, but not predictable.
However, it was very cost effective.
In previous circuit-switched telecom networks, physical wires and T1 lines carried data and
voice traffic. That provided predictable routes, but was very expensive and difficult to scale
because of the need to put in extensive infrastructure.

So MPLS and a similar technology, Carrier Ethernet (CE) have evolved to allow control of
network routing, creating paths that act like a point-to-point connection within the network, but
are virtual and flexible instead of physical.
MPLS has the “touch and feel attributes of being able to set up – not physical circuits, but virtual
circuits. Ethernet virtual circuits,

this economical solution can be integrated seamlessly over any existing

infrastructure, such as IP, Frame Relay, ATM, or Ethernet. Subscribers with
differing access links can be aggregated on an MPLS edge without changing
their current environments, as MPLS is independent of access technologies.

Integration of MPLS application components, including Layer 3 VPNs, Layer 2

VPNs, Traffic Engineering, QoS, GMPLS, and IPV6 enable the development
of highly efficient, scalable, and secure networks that guarantee Service Level
Agreements.
MPLS Forwarding

So now we can easily see how an MPLS packet is forwarded in the network
combining the above concepts that we have learned.When a network packet
enters the MPLS network, the ingress router places a label on top of it. This
label corresponds to a particular path that the packet needs to follow ie the
LSP. Different LSP’s corresponds to different label stack. The label is
distributed using different protocols such as Tag Distribution Protocol (TDP),
Label Distribution Protocol(LDP) and Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP).As
in IP forwarding, each router contains a routing table similarly in an MPLS
network each LSR contains Label Forwarding Information Base(LFIB). This
information base guides the LSR to swap the label with its corresponding
outgoing label thus allowing the packet to transmit through the network. The
major takeaway here is that the router needs only to see the label on top of
the incoming packet, and it does not care about the IP address (source and
destination) present inside the packet, thus allowing faster routing through
the network. At the end of the LSP, the Egress LSR pops the label of the
packet and the packet is routed as a normal IP packet.
Benefits of MPLS

Service providers and enterprises can use MPLS to implement QoS by

defining LSPs that can meet specific service-level agreements (SLAs) on
traffic latency, jitter, packet loss and downtime. For example, a network
might have three service levels that prioritize different types of traffic -- e.g.,
one level for voice, one level for time-sensitive traffic and one level for best
effort traffic.

MPLS also supports traffic separation and the creation of virtual private
networks (VPNs), virtual private LAN services and virtual leased lines.

One of the most notable benefits of MPLS is that it is not tied to any one
protocol or transport medium. It supports transport over IP, Ethernet,
asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and frame relay; any of these protocols
can be used to create an LSP. Generalized MPLS (GMPLS) extends MPLS to
manage time-division multiplexing (TDM), lambda switching and other
classes of switching technologies beyond packet switching.

Other benefits of MPLS include the following:

 It's good for real-time applications that can't tolerate latency, such as
video, voice and mission-critical data.

 Data and voice apps can all be run on the same MPLS network.

 Different types of data can be preprogrammed with different priorities

and classes of service.

 Organizations can assign different percentages of their bandwidth to

various types of data.

 MPLS networks are scalable. Companies only have to provision and pay
for the bandwidth they need until their requirements change.

Additionally, although a MPLS network is typically safe, it doesn't

offer encryption, making it vulnerable to cyberattacks.

MPLS reduces CPU-usage on routers, by allowing routers to make forwarding decisions solely
on the attached label, as opposed to parsing the full routing table

Labels can based on a variety of parameters: • Destination IP network • Source IP address • QoS
parameters • VPN destination • Outgoing interface • Layer-2 circuit MPLS is not restricted to IP,
or any specific Layer-2 technology, and thus is essentially protocol-independent.

The MPLS Process

There are four scenarios detailing how LSRs forward packets:

1. An unlabeled IP packet is received, and is routed unlabeled to the next hop.

2. An unlabeled IP packet is received, a label is inserted in the header, and is switched to the next
hop.

3. A labeled IP packet is received, the label is swapped, and is switched to the next hop.

4. A labeled IP packet is received, the label is stripped off, and is routed to the next hop or
destination. Frame-mode MPLS performs as follows:
1. An edge LSR receives a packet.

2. The edge LSR performs a routing table lookup to determine the next hop (or exit interface).

3. If destined for the MPLS network, the edge router inserts the label between the Layer-2 and
Layer-3 headers.

4. The edge LSR forwards the labeled packet to the core LSR. 5. Core LSRs will route solely
based on the label, and will not perform a routing table lookup.

MPLS VPNs Cisco identifies two key categories of VPNs:

• Overlay – connections are set up and maintained by the service provider. However, the
provider has no knowledge of, and does not participate in, the customer’s routing infrastructure. •
Peer-to-Peer – the provider directly participates in routing the customer’s infrastructure. Routes
from multiple customers are not kept separate. This may require customers to readdress their
networks. MPLS VPNs provide the best of both words.

Advantages of MPLS VPNs include:

• The provider directly participates in routing the customer infrastructure.

• Peer-to-peer peering is not required, leading to a scalable infrastructure.

• Customer networks do not need to be readdressed

• Routes from multiple customers are kept separate. MPLS VPNs use two labels. MPLS
separates customer routes by assigning each a unique Virtual Routing Instance (VRI), stored in a
Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) table. If the addressing structure of multiple clients
overlaps, each network is assigned a unique 64-bit route distinguisher (RD). The IP network and
RD combination is called a VPNv4 address. Route targets are BGP attributes that designate
MPLS VPN membership of routes.

Multiprotocol, it supports ANY network layer protocol, i.e. IPv4, IPv6, IPX, CLNP, etc. – A
short label of fixed length is used to encapsulate packets – Packets are forwarded by label
switching instead of by IP switching
MPLS LDP enables the peer LSR in an MPLS network to exchange label binding information for
supporting hop-by-hop forwarding in an MPLS network. MPLS LDP provides the means for LSRs to
request, distribute, and release label prefix binding information to peer routers in a network. LDP
enables LSRs to discover potential peers and to establish LDP sessions with those peers for the
purpose of exchanging label binding information.

 MPLS VPN: "MPLS" and "VPN" are two different technology types MPLS is a standards-based
technology used to speed up the delivery of network packets over multiple protocols -such as the
Internet Protocol, Asynchronous Transport Mode, and Frame-Relay network protocol. A virtual private
network (VPN) uses shared public telecom infrastructure, such as the Internet, to provide secure
access to remote offices and users in a cheaper way than an owned or leased line. VPNs are secure
because they use tunneling protocols and procedures such as Layer Two Tunneling Protocol (L2TP).
With those definitions understood, an MPLS VPN is a VPN that is built on top of an MPLS network,
usually from a service provider, to deliver connectivity between enterprise office locations.
There are three kinds of MPLS-based VPN:
 1. Layer 3 VPNs: With L3 VPNs the service provider participates in the customer's Layer 3
routing. The customer's CE router at each site speaks a routing protocol such as BGP or OSPF
to the provider's PE router, and the IP prefixes advertised at each customer site are carried
across the provider network. L3 VPNs are attractive to customers who want to leverage the
service provider's technical expertise to insure efficient site-to-site routing.

2. Layer 2 VPNs: The provider interconnects the customer sites via the Layer 2 technology -
usually ATM, Frame Relay, or Ethernet - of the customer's choosing. The customer implements
whatever Layer 3 protocol he wants to run, with no participation by the service provider at
that level. L2 VPNs are attractive to customers who want complete control of their own
routing; they are attractive to service providers because they can serve up whatever
connectivity the customer wants simply by adding the appropriate interface in the PE router.

3. Virtual Private LAN Service: VPLS makes the service provider's network look like a single
Ethernet switch from the customer's viewpoint. The attraction of VPLS to customers is that
they can make their WAN look just like their local campus- or building-scope networks, using a
single technology (Ethernet) that is cheap and well understood. Unlike traditional Metro
Ethernet services built around actual Ethernet switches, service providers can connect VPLS
customers from regional all the way up to global scales. So a customer with sites in London,
Dubai, Bangalore, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, and New York can connect all his sites with what
appears to be a single Ethernet switch.

 Mpls On Ospf, Mpls On Eigrp, Mpls On Bgp

In the specific context of an MPLS-based virtual private network (VPN), LERs that function

as ingress and/or egress routers to the VPN are often called PE (Provider Edge) routers.
Devices that function only as transit routers are similarly called P (Provider) routers

Penultimate hop popping (PHP)