RFC 3031 (rfc3031) - Page 2 of 61
Multiprotocol Label Switching Architecture
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 3031 MPLS Architecture January 2001
3.12 FEC-to-NHLFE Map (FTN) ............................. 14
3.13 Label Swapping ..................................... 15
3.14 Scope and Uniqueness of Labels ..................... 15
3.15 Label Switched Path (LSP), LSP Ingress, LSP Egress . 16
3.16 Penultimate Hop Popping ............................ 18
3.17 LSP Next Hop ....................................... 20
3.18 Invalid Incoming Labels ............................ 20
3.19 LSP Control: Ordered versus Independent ............ 20
3.20 Aggregation ........................................ 21
3.21 Route Selection .................................... 23
3.22 Lack of Outgoing Label ............................. 24
3.23 Time-to-Live (TTL) ................................. 24
3.24 Loop Control ....................................... 25
3.25 Label Encodings .................................... 26
3.25.1 MPLS-specific Hardware and/or Software ............. 26
3.25.2 ATM Switches as LSRs ............................... 26
3.25.3 Interoperability among Encoding Techniques ......... 28
3.26 Label Merging ...................................... 28
3.26.1 Non-merging LSRs ................................... 29
3.26.2 Labels for Merging and Non-Merging LSRs ............ 30
3.26.3 Merge over ATM ..................................... 31
3.26.3.1 Methods of Eliminating Cell Interleave ............. 31
3.26.3.2 Interoperation: VC Merge, VP Merge, and Non-Merge .. 31
3.27 Tunnels and Hierarchy .............................. 32
3.27.1 Hop-by-Hop Routed Tunnel ........................... 32
3.27.2 Explicitly Routed Tunnel ........................... 33
3.27.3 LSP Tunnels ........................................ 33
3.27.4 Hierarchy: LSP Tunnels within LSPs ................. 33
3.27.5 Label Distribution Peering and Hierarchy ........... 34
3.28 Label Distribution Protocol Transport .............. 35
3.29 Why More than one Label Distribution Protocol? ..... 36
3.29.1 BGP and LDP ........................................ 36
3.29.2 Labels for RSVP Flowspecs .......................... 36
3.29.3 Labels for Explicitly Routed LSPs .................. 36
3.30 Multicast .......................................... 37
4 Some Applications of MPLS .......................... 37
4.1 MPLS and Hop by Hop Routed Traffic ................. 37
4.1.1 Labels for Address Prefixes ........................ 37
4.1.2 Distributing Labels for Address Prefixes ........... 37
4.1.2.1 Label Distribution Peers for an Address Prefix ..... 37
4.1.2.2 Distributing Labels ................................ 38
4.1.3 Using the Hop by Hop path as the LSP ............... 39
4.1.4 LSP Egress and LSP Proxy Egress .................... 39
4.1.5 The Implicit NULL Label ............................ 40
4.1.6 Option: Egress-Targeted Label Assignment ........... 40
4.2 MPLS and Explicitly Routed LSPs .................... 42
4.2.1 Explicitly Routed LSP Tunnels ...................... 42
4.3 Label Stacks and Implicit Peering .................. 43
Rosen, et al. Standards Track
