MPLS In Perspective

Kireeti Kompella
Distinguished Engineer
Juniper Networks
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Menu

IP salad with horseradish dressing

ATM flambee
MPLS stewed in its own juice

For afters
Services double espresso
Revenue a la mode
Copyright Juniper Networks,
2001 2
IP Good Enough

Well-architected,
worked out in detail stuff above
NOT!
transport
Realization: cant network
predict the future stuff below
Make it reasonable
Make it flexible
Make it extensible

Copyright Juniper Networks,

2001 3
So Easy to Forget

IP started out with e-mail

and data services
ftp
news
Now: the Web, voice, video,
Also, SLAs, grades of service,

Copyright Juniper Networks,

2001 4
IP Control Plane

Again, just good enough

But again, flexible, extensible
DV routing was fine for quite a while
Just in time, along came link state
Now: is convergence in a few
seconds good enough?

Copyright Juniper Networks,

2001 5
Good Enough Can Get Better

Fast to ultrafast convergence

Bullet-proof IP
Hitless restart?
Business IP
Make me money new services, GoS
Dont lose me money uptime, SLAs

Copyright Juniper Networks,

2001 6
ATM Perfectionists Dream

Connection-oriented
Does everything and
does it well stuff above
Anticipated all transport
future uses and network
factored them in ATM
Philosophical
mismatch with IP

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2001 7
MPLS

If (ATM = Frame Relay on steroids)

then (MPLS = ATM on happy juice)
Make it just Good Enough
Despite all efforts to make it perfect
IP control plane
IP philosophy

Copyright Juniper Networks,

2001 8
What Does MPLS Offer?

Tunnels
Drop a packet in, and out it comes at the
other end without being IP routed
Explicit (source) routing (circuits)
Label stack
2-label stack: outer label defines the
tunnel; inner label demultiplexes
Layer 2 independence
Copyright Juniper Networks,
2001 9
Why Tunnels?

Cant IP route
Non-IP packets
IP packets with private addresses
Dont want to IP route
BGP-free core
Multicast

Copyright Juniper Networks,

2001 10
How Tunnels?

MPLS: LDP automagic tunnels that

follow IP routing
IP: IP-in-IP, GRE, IPSec, UTI
Can one tunnel do multiple things?
Tunnel demux

Copyright Juniper Networks,

2001 11
Tunnel Comparison

MPLS (LDP) tunnels IP tunnels

Small header Big header
Label stacking No stacking (*)
Signaling for demux No signaling (yet)
Automagic tunnels Configured tunnels
Tracks IP routing Duh!
Harder to spoof Spoofable
No data security IPSec
Copyright Juniper Networks,
2001 12
Bottom Line on Tunnels

Dont need MPLS for tunnels

But MPLS tunnels have some nice
properties
Decision (should be) based on cost of
deploying new protocol vs. benefits

Copyright Juniper Networks,

2001 13
Why Explicit Routing?

Traffic Engineering
Fast reroute
Guaranteed bandwidth
Probably others
Connection-oriented paradigm nicely
complements IPs connectionlessness

Copyright Juniper Networks,

2001 14
Traffic Engineering

Is ATM the best way to engineer

traffic?
Or is it MPLS?
Or can we do just fine with IP?

First question: do you need traffic

engineering? What part of network?
Copyright Juniper Networks,
2001 15
Traffic Engineering Steps

First, determine how to lay out

traffic on the physical topology
Measure traffic (e.g., city-pair-wise)
Crunch numbers
Second, do something to convince the
packets to follow your plan

Copyright Juniper Networks,

2001 16
Traffic Engineering Options

BGP play with communities, filtering

IGP play with metrics
Linear programming can help
Source routing
ATM
MPLS

Copyright Juniper Networks,

2001 17
Traffic Engineering

Warning: read at your own risk!

Fine-grained Traffic Engineering
needs some form of source routing
Specific incremental changes much
easier with source routing
Change a single city-pair flow
Reacting to a link failure

Copyright Juniper Networks,

2001 18
Linear Programming

TE among N cities: N city pairs

Set up N by N matrix for LP
Matrix multiplication/inversion is
O(M) for M x M matrix;
simplex is O(M) matrix operations
So, LP problem is O(N12)
Also cant deal with looped routes
Copyright Juniper Networks,
2001 19
Fast Reroute

Can MPLS re-route as fast as SONET

(50ms)?
Can IP re-route as fast as MPLS?
Do packets get dizzy if they are re-
routed too fast?

Copyright Juniper Networks,

2001 20
Fast Reroute (2)

First question: how fast is fast?

Do you really need 50 ms failover?
Second question: can you reroute
really quickly while maintaining
network stability?
Third question: what are the
scalability issues with fast reroute?

Copyright Juniper Networks,

2001 21
Fast Reroute Comparison

IP MPLS (RSVP-TE)
All nodes must be Only the two ends
told of failure of the link need be
told (no signaling)
Fast propagation, Local operation:
fast SPF trigger: explicit routing;
how stable? more stable
One step to full Two step process:
reconvergence detour + converge

Copyright Juniper Networks,

2001 22
Fast Reroute: MPLS vs. IP

C
10 1000
pkt to B

A B
10

IP routing to B
MPLS detour to B
Copyright Juniper Networks,
2001 23
Guaranteed Bandwidth

Again, first question: do you need it?

If so, you need source routing, CAC
and some way of signaling b/w
RSVP-TE can do this
ATM could probably do it better

Copyright Juniper Networks,

2001 24
MPLS Services

IP VPNs (RFC 2547 et al)

Layer 2 transport
Layer 2 VPNs
Transparent LAN Service
TDM over MPLS over TDM over
Electricity over photons?
Have we gotten a little carried away?
Copyright Juniper Networks,
2001 25
MPLS Services (2)

Most of these services need tunnels

Not really MPLS services
MPLS-geeks definitely responsible
Some of these services enhanced by
source routing
More services may mean more revenue,
could also keep you awake at night
Copyright Juniper Networks,
2001 26
Revenue

RFC 2547
New service recent deployment
Give it a shot, or run like hell? Or wait?
Layer 2 VPNs
Old service lots of deployment
New transport is it Good Enough?
Guaranteed bandwidth, Diff Serv, ?
Copyright Juniper Networks,
2001 27
Things to Ponder

Can Good Enough IP stay ahead of

the curve?
Even if so, can MPLS help?
Is MPLS a support, a crutch or a banana
peel?
Is connection-orientedness a useful
addition to connectionless IP?
What services, when, how far to go?
Copyright Juniper Networks,
2001 28
My Biases

Vendor
MPLS geek
Protocols freak
Neutral about ATM
IP rules!
Reasonably agnostic

Copyright Juniper Networks,

2001 29
 Thank you!

http://www.juniper.net
kireeti@juniper.net

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