MPLS stands for Multiprotocol Label Switching. MPLS gives network operators a great deal of flexibility to divert and route traffic around link failures, congestion, and bottlenecks. Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a data-carrying mechanism that belongs to the family of packet-switched networks. MPLS operates at an OSI Model layer that is generally considered to lie between traditional definitions of 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.
A number of different technologies were previously deployed with essentially identical goals, such as frame relay and ATM. MPLS technologies have evolved with the strengths and weaknesses of ATM in mind. Many network engineers agree that ATM should be replaced with a protocol that requires less overhead, while providing connection-oriented services for variable-length frames. MPLS is currently replacing some of these technologies in the marketplace. It is highly possible that MPLS will completely replace these technologies in the future, thus aligning these technologies with current and future technology needs.
MPLS was originally proposed by a group of engineers from Ipsilon Networks, but their “IP Switching” technology, which was defined only to work over ATM, did not achieve market dominance. Cisco Systems, Inc. introduced a related proposal, not restricted to ATM transmission, called “Tag Switching”. It was a Cisco proprietary proposal, and was renamed “Label Switching”. It was handed over to the IETF for open standardization. The IETF work involved proposals from other vendors, and development of a consensus protocol that combined features from several vendors’ work. MPLS works by prefixing packets with an MPLS header, containing one or more ‘labels’. This is called a label stack. Each label stack entry contains four fields:
• 20-bit label value.
• 3-bit field for QoS (Quality of Service) priority
• 1-bit bottom of stack flag. If this is set, it signifies that current label is the last in the
stack
• 8-bit TTL (time to live) field.
These MPLS-labeled packets are switched after a Label Lookup/Switch instead of a lookup into the IP table. When MPLS was conceived, Label Lookup and Label Switching were faster than a RIB lookup because they could take place directly within the switched fabric and not the CPU.
The entry and exit points of an MPLS network are called Label Edge Routers (LER), which, respectively, push an MPLS label onto the incoming packet and pop it off the outgoing packet. Routers that perform routing based only on the label are called Label Switch Routers (LSR). Labels are distributed between LERs and LSRs using the “Label Distribution Protocol” (LDP). Label Switch Routers in an MPLS network regularly exchange label and reach ability information with each other using standardized procedures in order to build a complete picture of the network they can then use to forward packets. Label Switch Paths (LSPs) are established by the network operator for a variety of purposes, such as to create network-based IP Virtual Private Networks or to route traffic along specified paths through the network. In many respects, LSPs are no different than PVCs in ATM or Frame Relay networks, except that they are not dependent on a particular Layer 2 technology.
In the specific context of an MPLS-based Virtual Private Network (VPN), LSRs 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. The job of a P router is significantly easier than that of a PE router, so they can be less complex and may be more dependable because of this. When an unlabeled packet enters the ingress router and needs to be passed on to an MPLS tunnel, the router first determines the forwarding equivalence class (FEC) the packet should be in, and then inserts one or more labels in the packet’s newly-created MPLS header. The packet is then passed on to the next hop router for this tunnel. When a labeled packet is received by an MPLS router, the topmost label is examined. Based on the contents of the label a swap, push (impose) or pop (dispose) operation can be performed on the packet’s label stack. Routers can have prebuilt lookup tables that tell them which kind of operation to do based on the topmost label of the incoming packet so they can process the packet very quickly.
In a swap operation the label is swapped with a new label, and the packet is forwarded along the path associated with the new label.
In a push operation a new label is pushed on top of the existing label, effectively “encapsulating” the packet in another layer of MPLS. This allows hierarchical routing of MPLS packets. Notably, this is used by MPLS VPNs.
In a pop operation the label is removed from the packet, which may reveal an inner label below. This process is called “de-capsulation”. If the popped label was the last on the label stack, the packet “leaves” the MPLS tunnel. This is usually done by the egress router. During these operations, the contents of the packet below the MPLS Label stack are not examined. Indeed transit routers typically need only to examine the topmost label on the stack. The forwarding of the packet is done based on the contents of the labels, which allows “protocol-independent packet forwarding” that does not need to look at a protocol-dependent routing table and avoids the expensive IP longest prefix match at each hop.
At the egress router, when the last label has been popped, only the payload remains. This can be an IP packet, or any of a number of other kinds of payload packet. The egress router must therefore have routing information for the packet’s payload, since it must forward it without the help of label lookup tables. An MPLS transit router has no such requirement.
MPLS versus IP
MPLS cannot be compared to IP as a separate entity because it works in conjunction with IP and IP’s IGP routing protocols. MPLS gives IP networks simple traffic engineering, the ability to transport Layer 3 (IP) VPNs with overlapping address spaces, and support for Layer 2 pseudo wires. Routers with programmable CPUs and without LSP can either be
(a) Explicitly configured hop by hop,
(b) Dynamically routed by the Constrained Shortest Path First CSPF algorithm,
(c) Configured as a loose route that avoids a particular IP or that is partly explicit and partly dynamic.
In a pure IP network, the shortest path to a destination is chosen even when it becomes more congested. Meanwhile, in an IP network with MPLS Traffic Engineering CSPF routing, constraints bandwidth of the traversed links can also be considered, such that the shortest path with available bandwidth will be chosen.
MPLS versus Frame Relay
Frame relay aimed to make more efficient use of existing physical resources, which allow for the under provisioning of data services by telecommunications companies to their customers, as clients were unlikely to be utilizing a data service 100 percent of the time. Telcos often sell frame relay to businesses looking for a cheaper alternative to dedicated lines. Many customers are likely to migrate from frame relay to MPLS over IP or Ethernet within the next two years, which in many cases will reduce costs and improve manageability and performance of their wide area networks.
MPLS versus ATM
Both MPLS and ATM provide a connection-oriented service for transporting data across computer networks. In both technologies, connections are signaled between endpoints, connection state is maintained at each node in the path, and encapsulation techniques are used to carry data across the connection.
The most significant difference is in the transport and encapsulation methods. MPLS is able to work with variable length packets while ATM transports fixed-length (53 byte) cells. Packets must be segmented, transported and re-assembled over an ATM network. MPLS simply adds a label to the head of each packet and transmits it on the network.
An MPLS connection (LSP) is unidirectional. ATM point-to-point connections (Virtual Circuits), on the other hand, are bi-directional, allowing data to flow in both directions over the same path. Both ATM and MPLS support tunneling of connections inside connections.
The biggest single advantage that MPLS has over ATM is that it was designed from the start to be complementary to IP. Modern routers are able to support both MPLS and IP natively across a common interface allowing network operators great flexibility in network design and operation. ATM’s incompatibilities with IP require complex adaptation, making it comparatively less suitable for today’s predominantly IP networks.
MPLS provides networks with a more efficient way to manage applications and move information between locations. With the convergence of voice, video and data applications, business networks face increasing traffic demands. MPLS enables class of service (CoS) tagging and prioritization of network traffic, so administrators may specify which applications should move across the network ahead of others. This function makes an MPLS network especially important to firms that need to ensure the performance of low-latency applications such as VoIP and their other business-critical functions.
