RFC 2702 (rfc2702) - Page 2 of 29

Requirements for Traffic Engineering Over MPLS

RFC 2702                MPLS Traffic Engineering          September 1999


   5.4   Basic Attributes of Traffic Trunks ....................... 13
   5.5   Traffic Parameter Attributes  ............................ 14
   5.6   Generic Path Selection and Management Attributes ......... 14
   5.6.1 Administratively Specified Explicit Paths ................ 15
   5.6.2 Hierarchy of Preference Rules for Multi-paths ............ 15
   5.6.3 Resource Class Affinity Attributes ....................... 16
   5.6.4 Adaptivity Attribute ..................................... 17
   5.6.5 Load Distribution Across Parallel Traffic Trunks ......... 18
   5.7   Priority Attribute ....................................... 18
   5.8   Preemption Attribute ..................................... 18
   5.9   Resilience Attribute ..................................... 19
   5.10  Policing Attribute  ...................................... 20
   6.0   Resource Attributes ...................................... 21
   6.1   Maximum Allocation Multiplier ............................ 21
   6.2   Resource Class Attribute  ................................ 22
   7.0   Constraint-Based Routing  ................................ 22
   7.1   Basic Features of Constraint-Based Routing ............... 23
   7.2   Implementation Considerations ............................ 24
   8.0   Conclusion   ............................................. 25
   9.0   Security Considerations .................................. 26
   10.0  References   ............................................. 26
   11.0  Acknowledgments .......................................... 27
   12.0  Authors' Addresses ....................................... 28
   13.0  Full Copyright Statement ................................. 29

1.0 Introduction

   Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) [1,2] integrates a label
   swapping framework with network layer routing. The basic idea
   involves assigning short fixed length labels to  packets at the
   ingress to an MPLS cloud (based on the concept of forwarding
   equivalence classes [1,2]). Throughout the interior of the MPLS
   domain, the labels attached to packets are used to make forwarding
   decisions  (usually without recourse to the original packet headers).

   A set of powerful constructs to address many critical issues in the
   emerging differentiated services Internet can be devised from this
   relatively simple paradigm.  One of the most significant initial
   applications of MPLS will be in Traffic Engineering. The importance
   of this application is already well-recognized (see [1,2,3]).

   This manuscript is exclusively focused on the Traffic Engineering
   applications of MPLS. Specifically, the goal of this document is to
   highlight the issues and requirements for Traffic Engineering in a
   large Internet backbone. The expectation is that the MPLS
   specifications, or implementations derived therefrom, will address





Awduche, et al.              Informational