• Home
• Label Distribution - Cisco CCIE Prep

9.6 Label Distribution

9.6.1 MPLS IP Forwarding: Control Plane

For pure IP routing to work using the FIB, routers must use control plane protocols, like routing protocols, to first populate the IP routing table and then populate the CEF FIB. Similarly, for MPLS forwarding to work, MPLS relies on control plane protocols to learn which MPLS labels to use to reach each IP prefix, and then populate both the FIB and the LFIB with the correct labels.

MPLS supports many different control plane protocols. However, an engineer's choice of which control plane protocol to use is mainly related to the MPLS application used, rather than any detailed comparison of the features of each control plane protocol. For example, MPLS VPNs use two control plane protocols: LDP and multiprotocol BGP (MP-BGp).

While multiple control plane protocols may be used for some MPLS applications, MPLS unicast IP forwarding uses an IGP and one MPLS-specific control plane protocol: LDP.

9.6.2 MPLS LDP Basics

For unicast IP routing, LDP simply advertises labels for each prefix listed in the IP routing table. To do so, LSRs use LDP to send messages to their neighbors, with the messages listing an IP prefix and corresponding label. By advertising an IP prefix and label, the LSR is essentially saying, "If you want to send packets to this IP prefix, send them to me with the MPLS label listed in the LDP update."

The LDP advertisement is triggered by a new IP route appearing in the unicast IP routing table. Upon learning a new route, the LSR allocates a label called a local label. The local label is the label that, on this one LSR, is used to represent the IP prefix just added to the routing table.

9.6.3 The MPLS LIB

LSRs store labels and related information inside a data structure called LIB. The LIB essentially holds all the labels and associated information that could possibly be used to forward packets. However, each LSR must choose the best label and outgoing interface to actually use and then populate that information into the

FIB and the LFIB. As a result, the FIB and LFIB contain labels only for the currently used best LSP segment, while the LIB contains all labels known to the LSR, whether the label is currently used for forwarding or not. To make a decision about the best label to use, LSRs rely on the routing protocol's decision about the best route. By relying on the routing protocol, the LSRs can take advantage of the routing protocol's loop-prevention features and react to the routing protocol's choice for new routes when convergence occurs. In short, an LSR makes the following decision:

For each route in the routing table, find the corresponding label information in the LIB, based on the outgoing interface and next-hop router listed in the route. Add the corresponding label information to the FIB and LFIB.

9.6.4 Label Distribution Protocol Reference

LDP uses a Hello feature to discover LDP neighbors and to determine to what IP address the ensuing TCP connection should be made. LDP multicasts the Hellos to IP address 224.0.0.2, using UDP port number 646 for LDP (TDP uses UDP port 711). The Hellos list each LSR's LDP ID (LID), which consists of a 32-bit dotted-decimal number and a 2-byte label space number. (For frame-based MPLS, the label space number is 0.) An LSR can optionally list a transport address in the Hello message, which is the IP address that the LSR wants to use for any LDP TCP connections. If a router does not advertise a transport address, other routers will use the IP address that is the first 4 bytes of the LDP ID for the TCP connections.

After discovering neighbors via an LDP Hello message, LDP neighbors form a TCP connection to each neighbor, again using port 646 (TDP 711). Because the TCP connection uses unicast addresses-either the neighbor's advertised transport address or the address in the LID-these addresses must be reachable according to the IP routing table. Once the TCP connection is up, each router advertises all of its bindings of local labels and prefixes.

Cisco routers choose the IP address in the LDP ID just like the OSPF router ID. LDP chooses the IP address to use as part of its LID based on the exact same logic as OSPF, as summarized below:

LDP Reference