Packet Forwarding with Multiprotocol Label Switching
MultiProtocol Label Switching (MPLS) is an
emerging technology that aims to address many of the existing issues
associated with packet forwarding in today-s Internetworking
environment. It provides a method of forwarding packets at a high
rate of speed by combining the speed and performance of Layer 2
with the scalability and IP intelligence of Layer 3. In a traditional IP
(Internet Protocol) routing network, a router analyzes the destination
IP address contained in the packet header. The router independently
determines the next hop for the packet using the destination IP
address and the interior gateway protocol. This process is repeated at
each hop to deliver the packet to its final destination. In contrast, in
the MPLS forwarding paradigm routers on the edge of the network
(label edge routers) attach labels to packets based on the forwarding
Equivalence class (FEC). Packets are then forwarded through the
MPLS domain, based on their associated FECs , through swapping
the labels by routers in the core of the network called label switch
routers. The act of simply swapping the label instead of referencing
the IP header of the packet in the routing table at each hop provides
a more efficient manner of forwarding packets, which in turn allows
the opportunity for traffic to be forwarded at tremendous speeds and
to have granular control over the path taken by a packet. This paper
deals with the process of MPLS forwarding mechanism,
implementation of MPLS datapath , and test results showing the
performance comparison of MPLS and IP routing. The discussion
will focus primarily on MPLS IP packet networks – by far the
most common application of MPLS today.
[1] RFC 3031- Multiprotocol Label Switching Architecture.
[2] RFC 3032 - MPLS Label Stack Encoding.
[3] MPLS and VPN Architectures -- CCIP Edition Pearson education 2002,
Delhi, India.
[4] TCP/IP Illustrated -- Richard Stevens Volume II Pearson Education
2001, Delhi, India.
[5] Computer Networks (Fourth edition) -- Andrew S. Tanenbaum.
Prentice Hall India, 2002 Delhi, India.
[6] Routing TCP/IP - Jeff Doyle CCIE #1919 Volume I Techmedia, 2002
Delhi India.
[1] RFC 3031- Multiprotocol Label Switching Architecture.
[2] RFC 3032 - MPLS Label Stack Encoding.
[3] MPLS and VPN Architectures -- CCIP Edition Pearson education 2002,
Delhi, India.
[4] TCP/IP Illustrated -- Richard Stevens Volume II Pearson Education
2001, Delhi, India.
[5] Computer Networks (Fourth edition) -- Andrew S. Tanenbaum.
Prentice Hall India, 2002 Delhi, India.
[6] Routing TCP/IP - Jeff Doyle CCIE #1919 Volume I Techmedia, 2002
Delhi India.
@article{"International Journal of Information, Control and Computer Sciences:58871", author = "R.N.Pise and S.A.Kulkarni and R.V.Pawar", title = "Packet Forwarding with Multiprotocol Label Switching", abstract = "MultiProtocol Label Switching (MPLS) is an
emerging technology that aims to address many of the existing issues
associated with packet forwarding in today-s Internetworking
environment. It provides a method of forwarding packets at a high
rate of speed by combining the speed and performance of Layer 2
with the scalability and IP intelligence of Layer 3. In a traditional IP
(Internet Protocol) routing network, a router analyzes the destination
IP address contained in the packet header. The router independently
determines the next hop for the packet using the destination IP
address and the interior gateway protocol. This process is repeated at
each hop to deliver the packet to its final destination. In contrast, in
the MPLS forwarding paradigm routers on the edge of the network
(label edge routers) attach labels to packets based on the forwarding
Equivalence class (FEC). Packets are then forwarded through the
MPLS domain, based on their associated FECs , through swapping
the labels by routers in the core of the network called label switch
routers. The act of simply swapping the label instead of referencing
the IP header of the packet in the routing table at each hop provides
a more efficient manner of forwarding packets, which in turn allows
the opportunity for traffic to be forwarded at tremendous speeds and
to have granular control over the path taken by a packet. This paper
deals with the process of MPLS forwarding mechanism,
implementation of MPLS datapath , and test results showing the
performance comparison of MPLS and IP routing. The discussion
will focus primarily on MPLS IP packet networks – by far the
most common application of MPLS today.", keywords = "Forwarding equivalence class, incoming label map,label, next hop label forwarding entry.", volume = "1", number = "12", pages = "3942-5", }