Implementing Cisco MPLS

Modules

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Introducing Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) (16 topics)

• Objectives of MPLS
• Applications of MPLS
• Variants of MPLS: MPLS-TE; GMPLS; MPLS-TP
• Architecture and Components of MPLS (LER, LSR, LSP, PE, CE, P)
• Functions of Ingress/Egress Label Edge Routers
• Forward Equivalence Class
• Functions of Label Switched Routers & Requirements of LSPs
• Label Distribution Methods: Piggybacked or Separate signalling protocol
• Label Distribution Protocol (LDP)
• MPLS Label & Payload
• MPLS Modes: Label Distribution; Label Retention; LSP Control
• Tunnelling & Label Stacks
• Forwarding of Labelled Packets
• Label operation; Reserved Labels; TTL Behaviour; MPLS MTU & Fragmentation; PATH MTU Discovery
• MPLS mapping into different link layer technologies
• OAM for MPLS RFC 4377

Internetworking with IP within the Core (6 topics)

• Where IP fits into the Internet Protocol Suite
• Functions of Internetworking Protocols
• Addressing: Classless and Classful
• Core Routing Protocols (RIP, OSPF, IS-IS, BGP)
• Internet Services for carriers: How the Internet is built
• Implication of Internet access across the core

MPLS with Traffic Engineering Extensions (MPLS-TE) (8 topics)

• Traffic engineering with MPLS to support VPNs & QoS enabled services
• Explicit route Label Switched Paths (ER-LSPs)
• Constraint-based routing
• Constraint based LDP and Explicit routes
• Pre-emption, holding & priority of LSPs
• RSVP-TE and explicit routes
• OSPF-TE
• Use of BGP

MPLS-based VPNs (3 topics)

• Requirements of VPNs
• Overlay VPN Model
• Peer-to-peer VPN Model

IP VPNs (L3 VPNs) (12 topics)

• MPLS VPN components and functionality
• CE-PE interfaces
• How packets are associated with VRFs
• Label stacking aiding VPN support
• Use of BGP within L3 VPNs
• Forwarding packets across the MPLS network
• Route Distinguisher
• Route Target: Import and Export targets
• Route distribution in MPLS L3 VPN
• Route and Label advertisement
• Independence from VPN addressing
• CE-PE Routing Protocols

Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) (6 topics)

• LDP Protocol Data Unit Structure & messages
• Operation (Discovery; Session Management; Advertising/Withdrawing Label Mappings)
• Targeted LDP Session
• LDP Authentication
• LDP Autoconfiguration
• MPLS LDP Session Protection

L2 VPNs (17 topics)

• The Need for GMPLS or Any Transport over MPLS (AToM)
• Ethernet over MPLS Overview
• Pseudowire Architecture
• IEEE 802.1Q VLANs and VLAN Tagging
• MPLS VPWS (L2 Point-to-Point Pseudowires)
• Discovery & Pseudowire Signalling (T-LDP)
• Label Mapping Message TLVs
• Frame Forwarding
• The Control Word
• QoS issues
• MPLS VPLS (L2 Multipoint-to-Multipoint service)
• VPLS Architecture
• Signalling (T-LDP, MP-BGP), MAC Learning
• Discovery
• Frame forwarding (Unicast, Multicast)
• QoS issues
• Typical use cases for MPLS VPWS & MPLS VPLS including Mobile Backhaul

Pseudowire Emulation and Circuit Emulation Services (31 topics)

• IETF PWE3
• Pseudowires and PSN Tunnels
• Encapsulating the emulated service
• Timing, sequencing & the Control Word
• Native service processing
• Control Plane architecture
• Pseudowires over an MPLS backbone
• The MPLS Approach to PWE3
• Establishing LSP Tunnels
• Using LDP for signalling pseudowires
• The IP Approach to PWE3
• Routing PSN Tunnels
• L2TPv3 signalling and control channels
• L2TP sessions and pseudowires
• Status and Keep-alive
• Session identifiers and attachment circuits
• GMPLS
• GMPLS structure
• GMPLS mechanisms
• GMPLS Control Plane
• Emulating Ethernet
• LAN extension services
• Ethernet encapsulation
• Use of the control word
• Tagged mode and raw mode
• TDM Emulation over PSN
• Structured TDM services
• Frequency justification and pointers
• Use of RTP for timing and sequencing
• Packet synchronisation and transport timing
• Unstructured PDH services (Structure agnostic TDM over Packet)

Quality of Service and DiffServ (21 topics)

• The objectives of QoS
• QoS options
• Relationship between QoS and CoS
• Traffic Engineering for QoS
• Explicitly Routed LSPs
• Constraint Based LSPs
• Signalling constraint based LSPs using CR-LDP and RSVP-TE
• Deploying QoS and DiffServ
• Use of DSCP within IP & PCP field within Carrier Ethernet
• Forwarding models for DiffServ LSRs: Tunnelling; Pipe; Uniform
• RSVP extensions for DiffServ support
• Delivering Reliability
• Fault tolerance objectives for MPLS
• Establishing a Fault Tolerant session with LDP
• Recovering failed LDP sessions
• Check-pointing and graceful termination
• Fast reroute alternatives
• Implementation issues
• Delivering Quality in Practice
• Queue management issues
• Queue mechanisms: input & output; Flow-based queues; class-based queues; RED & WRED

MPLS-TP (25 topics)

• Overview
• Concepts
• Where it fits
• Benefits
• Requirements
• Layered concept
• Data Plane
• Control Plane
• Protection and Recovery
• QoS
• Protocols
• For the optional Control Plane (GMPLS, RSVP-TE)
• Data Plane
• Management Plane
• Support for Network Management
• FCAPS; Generic Associated Channel (GACh)
• MPLS TP & Ethernet
• Carrier Ethernet services over MPLS-TP
• Static pseudowire establishment
• Dynamic pseudowire establishment
• LTE S1 and X2 interface implementations over MPLS-TP
• Synchronisation
• Synchronisation in MBH
• Synchronisation mechanisms (SyncE, IEEE 1588v2 PTP)
• Synchronisation implementation

OAM in MPLS, MPLS-TP and Carrier Ethernet (6 topics)

• OAM concepts
• How OAM is supported in MPLS and MPLS-TP
• How OAM is supported in Carrier Ethernet
• OAM Capabilities
• Protocols and Procedures for Fault Management and Performance Management
• Alarm handling and protection switching

MBH Solution options (4 topics)

• Analysis of how to deploy Carrier Ethernet over MPLS & MPLS-TP
• Identification of where & when to deploy IP/MPLS, Carrier Ethernet over MPLS or MPLS-TP in the backhaul tiers
• Comparison of the merits of each technology in the backhaul tiers
• Interworking issues