The CCIE Candidate’s

Introduction to MPLS
L3VPN Networks
Keith Barker, Scott Morris

• BRKCCIE-3345
Agenda
• MPLS IP Unicast Forwarding
• VRFs
• MPLS L3 VPNs
Tour Guide
• Keith Barker, CCIE #6783, CISSP
• CCIE Route/Switch and Security
• VMware, HP, Juniper, Palo Alto, Check Point
• Twitter: @KeithBarkerCCIE
• YouTube & Facebook: Keith Barker Networking
Tour Guide
• Scott Morris, CCIEx4 #4713, CCDE #2009::13, JNCIEx2
• CCIE Route & Switch, ISP/Dial, Security, Service Provider
• Cisco Certified Design Expert
• Juniper Networks JNCIE-SP #153 and JNCIE-ENT #102
• CISSP, CCNP-V, CCNP-DC and several other
random things!
• Twitting: @ScottMorrisCCIE
Journey
• MPLS IP Unicast Forwarding
• VRFs
• MPLS L3 VPNs
End Goal: Routes and Transit for each customer.
Ingredients in the MPLS L3VPN Recipe
• IGPs
• MPLS
• VRFs
• iBGP
• MP-BGP
• Routers and Administrators that know how the game is played
MPLS Building Blocks
MPLS Vocabulary

• P Provider router (not-customer facing)

• PE Provider-Edge router (customer facing)
• CE Customer-Edge router (customers router, connect to provider)
• MPLS Multi Protocol Label Switching (forwarding method, based on labels)
• LSR Label Switching Router (router that can forward based on labels)
• Label 32 bit header (with a 20 bit label #) added at layer 2.5
• LDP Label Distribution Protocol (like an IGP for label advertisements)
• LFIB Label Forwarding Information Base (like CEF for labels)
Lets apply the vocabulary to our topology
Lets apply the vocabulary to our topology
Labels
MPLS Header
Label (20 bits) CoS S TTL

L2 Header MPLS Header IP Packet

32 bits

• MPLS (Layer 2.5) Header Fields:

• Label, 20 bits
• Experimental (CoS), 3 bits
• Stacking bit, 1 bit. This is the bottom-of-stack bit. 1=on=last label.
• Time to live, 8 bits
Where Does the Label Go?
• MPLS Header
• Inserted between L2 and L3
• L2 protocol identifier (PID) indicates an MPLS label is present
• Unlabeled IP unicast PID = 0x 0800
• Labeled IP unicast PID = 0x 8847
Stacks of MPLS Labels
Commonly asked questions regarding MPLS labels

• Where do the labels come from?

• As routes appear in the routing table, each router assigns a locally significant label for
each IP route.

• How are they advertised?

• Routers advertise their local label to neighbors, using Label Distribution Protocol
(LDP). It’s like an IGP for labels.
Generating local labels
• IPv4 Network 4.4.4.4 /32 (connected to R4) will be the subject for these labels
Discover the local bindings for 4.4.4.4
Advertising our labels
• Each router advertises its local label (for net 4.4.4.4) to its LDP neighbors
Implicit Null Advertisement
R3 advertises its label of 302 to R2 and R4
• Each router advertises its local label (for net 4.4.4.4) to its LDP neighbors
R2 advertises its label of 202 to R1 and R3
• Each router advertises its local label (for net 4.4.4.4) to its LDP neighbors
How R2 chooses between label 100 (from R1) and
302 (from R3) for forwarding
• (in reference to network 4.4.4.4/32)
Why R2 chooses to use the label from R3
• (regarding network 4.4.4.4/32)
Control and Data Planes
• Control Plane (learned routes/labels) using routing protocols and LDP.
• Packets are forwarded on the Data Plane.
• IP and MPLS, based on CEF and LFIB (Label Forwarding Information Base) respectively.
Labeled packet, leaving R1
How LSRs Use Labels
• POP – remove a label
• PUSH – add a label
• SWAP – which is a pop/push combo
Label Imposition (Push) Label Swap Label Swap Label Disposition (PoP)

L1 L1 L2 L2 L3 L3

L2/L3 Packet

P P
CE PE PE CE

CE CE

PE P P PE
PHP
• PHP – Penultimate Hop Pop
• Next to last LSR, removes top label, so that
egress LSR (PE) doesn’t have to
Label Pushes, Pops and Swaps
Who do we Turn to for Lookups?
• IP Routing protocols populate the Routing Information Base (RIB) –control plane
• RIB populates CEF and its Forwarding Information Base (FIB) – data plane
• IP only packets: Use CEF

• Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) populates the Label Information Base (LIB) –
control plane
• LDP and RIB populate the Label Forwarding Information Base (LFIB) – data plane
• MPLS labeled packets: Use LFIB

• CEF also stores label information

LIB and LFIB
MPLS Basic Configuration
• (config)# ip cef
• (config)# mpls ip
• (config)# interface G 3/0
• (config-if)# mpls ip

• MTU is automatically adjusted

• Can change with mpls mtu command
• mpls mtu 1512 -- would support 3 labels (4 bytes per label)
MPLS LDP Configuration
(config)# mpls ldp router-id loopback0
(config)# interface fastethernet 0/0
(config-if)# mpls label protocol ldp

• Can use TDP, LDP or both on interface

• By default all prefixes have labels advertised for them, and all neighbors have labels advertised
to them
• LDP is the default protocol
• Configure per interface
Conditional LDP Advertisements
(config)# no mpls ldp advertise-labels
(config)# mpls ldp advertise-labels
[for (ACL-of-networks)] [to (ACL-peers)

(config-if)# mpls label range 200 120000

The Order of Things
• IP IGP routing protocols build the IP tables
• LSRs assign a local label for each route
• LSRs share their labels with other LSRs using LDP
• LSRs build their forwarding tables
 Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

• Two step process

• Hello messages
• LDP link hello uses destination UDP port 646 and is sent to 224.0.0.2
• Hello may include the IP address desired for peering, different than the source IP in the
header.
• Indicates if the label space is system wide, or per interface.
• Setup LDP session with neighbor who says hello.
• Session is TCP based on destination port 646
• Router with highest LDP router ID will initiate this TCP session ( called the active LSR ).
Keepalives are sent every 60 seconds.
Why LDP Won’t Neighbor Up
• LDP router ID is highest IP on loopback, but we can force it.
• (config)# mpls ldp router-id loopback0

• IGP Routing may disagree with LDP processes – RID must be reachable over
connected interface, unless we use:
• (config-if)# mpls ldp discovery transport-address interface
Other LDP Features
• Security – Computes MD5 Signatures
• (config)# mpls ldp neighbor (ip#) password (pw)

• Label filters – inbound from neighbor

• (config)# mpls ldp neighbor (ip#) labels accept (#)
• (ip#) = IP address of LDP neighbor
• (#) = number of access-list of network prefixes
MPLS & IP Header TTL
Hide the MPLS Core from the Client
• Traceroute uses TTL manipulation to trigger feedback.
• Disabling the TTL propagation will not copy the initial IP TTL to the MPLS TTL,
and MPLS will start at 255.
• Results: MPLS LSRs become the invisible network to the eyes of traceroute.
No mpls ip propagate-ttl (on All LSRs)
Monitoring MPLS
• show mpls ldp parameters
• show mpls interface
• show mpls ldp discovery
• show mpls ldp neighbor [detail]
• show mpls ldp bindings (the LIB)
• show mpls forwarding table (the LFIB)
• show ip route a.b.c.d (the RIB)
• show ip cef a.b.c.d [detail] (the FIB)
• show cef interface
• debug mpls ldp
• debug mpls lfib
• debug mpls packets
Troubleshooting MPLS
• LDP neighborship failed
• MPLS not enabled, LDP ports filtered, no L3 route to LDP neighbor LSR router-id, highest
loopback address.

• Labels not assigned

• CEF not enabled

• Labels not shared

• Compatible LDP between neighbors

• Slow convergence
• Get rid of RIP  IGP is biggest factor in convergence delay

• Large packets dropped

• MTU not supported by switches. Multiple labels may be present pushing the MTU to a size not supported by the
infrastructure.
Useful MPLS Troubleshooting Commands
• Verify routing protocol is running properly
• Show ip route 10.10.10.0
• Verify CEF Switching
• Show ip cef 10.10.10.0 detail
• Verify MPLS Operations
• Show mpls interface
• Verify Label Distribution
• Show mpls ldp discovery
• Verify Label Binding
• Show mpls ip binding
• Ping/Traceroute
Stretch- 1, 2, 3 Go!
MPLS L3VPN Game Plan
• A customer router (CE) at site A peers with a provider router (PE).
• Customer shares their routes with provider, and provider puts learned
routes in a local VRF on the provider router.
• Provider takes the routes from the VRF, and exports them from the VRF into
Multiprotocol BGP (MP-BGP). The routes are now called VPNv4 routes.
• BGP is used to share these VPNv4 routes with other MP-BGP routers in the
provider network with iBGP connections.
• A provider router (PE) peering with a customer router (CE) at site 2, takes the
VPNv4 routes from MBGP and imports them into the local VRF for that
same customer, and shares the routes from PE to CE at site B.
VRF: The Virtual Routing Table
• Cisco routers can have multiple VRFs
• VRF: Virtual Routing and Forwarding instance
• Some details about VRFs:
• Router can have multiple VRFs
• Each VRF has its own RIB and CEF table
• Interfaces are allocated to a specific VRF
• Interfaces not assigned to a VRF are part of the global routing table on the router.
• VRFs contains identity information such as Route Targets (RT), and Route
Distinguishers (RD)
• More on RT and RD coming up.
Creating a VRF and Allocating an Interface
ip vrf cust1
rd 10:10
route-target export 1.1.1.1:1
route-target import 4.4.4.4:1
!
interface GigabitEthernet1/0
ip vrf forwarding cust1
ip address 172.16.0.1 255.255.255.252
Green VRF and Purple VRF, Allocated to Interfaces
How MPLS L3 VPNs May Appear to Some.
What if Cust1 and Cust2 Both Use the Same
Private Network Address space of 10.0.0.0/8 ?
Uniquely Identifying Similar Routes
• What if customer 1 and customer 2 both have a 10.0.0.0/8 network, how do we
differentiate these VPNv4 routes inside of MP-BGP?

Wait for it....

• Route Distinguisher (RD) is added to each route to make it globally unique inside of
MP-BGP
• The route, along with the RD, is the VPNv4 route
• VPNv4 routes are exchanged via iBGP between PE routers
• BGP that supports other address families besides just IPv4 is called multi-protocol
BGP
How the RD is Defined
ip vrf cust1
rd 10:10
route-target export 1.1.1.1:1
route-target import 4.4.4.4:1

interface GigabitEthernet1/0
ip vrf forwarding cust1
ip address 172.16.0.1 255.255.255.252
Route Distinguisher
Viewing Routes in MP-BGP by RD
How do we Deliver the Correct Routes and Traffic for
each customer between their sites?
Import/Export Route Targets
• Export Route Targets identifying VPN membership are added as extended
community values with the customer route when the route is converted into a
VPNv4 route (exported out of the VRF into MP-BGP)
• Each virtual routing table has a set of associated import Route Targets that
select routes to be inserted into the virtual routing table (imported into the VRF
from MP-BGP)

• VRF into BGP (export) – inject the export route target value(s)
• BGP into VRF (import) – only get the routes whose import route target(s) match
the import route targets associated with that VRF
Route Target (Cont.)
• Route Targets are additional attributes attached to VPNv4 BGP routes to
indicate VPN membership
• Extended BGP communities are used to encode these attributes
• Extended communities carry the meaning of the attribute together with its value
• Multiple route targets can be attached to a single route
Secret to Remembering Import/Export
• Export policy means that routes will go from VRF into MP-BGP
• Import policy means that routes will come from the MP-BGP into VRF
• You can have multiple import/export route targets in a VRF
• Import or export policies can be filtered when desired
How the RT is Defined

• R1-PE • R4-PE
ip vrf cust1 ip vrf cust1
rd 10:10 rd 10:10
route-target export 1.1.1.1:1 route-target export 4.4.4.4:1
route-target import 4.4.4.4:1 route-target import 1.1.1.1:1

interface GigabitEthernet1/0 interface GigabitEthernet1/0

ip vrf forwarding cust1 ip vrf forwarding cust1
ip address 172.16.0.1 255.255.255.252 ip address 172.16.1.1 255.255.255.252
Route Targets
• Used as extended community information inside MP-BGP for
import/export to/from VRFs
Viewing the Route Target in MP-BGP
Let’s Follow the Control Plane for 172.16.129.0/24
172.16.129.0/24
R4 VPN label for 172.16.129.0/24
MP-BGP Update from R4
R1 learned VPN label advertised from R4
VPN Label Assignments
• R1 imposes two labels
• Top label is transit label (to reach next hop of 4.4.4.4)
• Bottom label VPN label (advertised by R4)
Regarding 172.16.129.0/24, R1 knows bottom VPN label (label 408) and
top label for the BGP next hop of 4.4.4.4 (label 202)

172.16.129.0/24
 Happy User at Cust1 Site A, Sends a Ping to Cust1 Site B address
172.16.129.2 What does R1 do with the inbound packet?

172.16.129.0/24

Ping:
172.16.129.2
 Top Label is swapped on each LSR in the path. R3 does PHP on top
label. R4 receives vpn label, removes it, then forwards to cust.

172.16.129.0/24

Ping:
172.16.129.2 Add Top Label 202 Remove
Add Bottom label 408 VPN Label

Swap Top Label PHP- Remove

Use 302 Top Label
L3VPN related show commands

• show ip route cef vrf ( vrf name )

• show ip route vrf (vrf name) x.x.x.x
• show vrf (vrf name) {detail}
• show ip bgp vpnv4 all {summary}
• show ip bgp vpnv4 vrf {name}
• show bgp vpnv4 unicast vrf {name}
• show bgp vrf {name} ipv4 unicast summary
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