eat and sleep MPLS

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a standards-approved technology for speeding up network traffic flow and making it easier to manage.

MPLS involves setting up a specific path for a given sequence of packets, identified by a label put in each packet, thus saving the time needed for a router to look up the address to the next node to forward the packet to.

MPLS is called multiprotocol because it works with the Internet Protocol (IP), Asynchronous Transport Mode (ATM), and frame relay network protocols. With reference to the standard model for a network (the Open Systems Interconnection, or OSI model), MPLS allows most packets to be forwarded at the layer 2 (switching) level rather than at the layer 3 (routing) level. In addition to moving traffic faster overall, MPLS makes it easy to manage a network for quality of service (QoS). For these reasons, the technique is expected to be readily adopted as networks begin to carry more and different mixtures of traffic.

# show ip protocols - verify routing protocol runs
# show ip route - Ensure that the protocol routes for the MPLS network and all neighbors are present

# show ip cef summary - verify CEF switching
# show ip cef - verify CEF status
# show mpls interfaces - to ensure that MPLS is globally enabled; This command also verifies that a Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) runs on the requested interfaces:

# ping 10.10.10.6 - ping the neighbor
# show tag-switching tdp discovery - verify label distribution

MPLS technology is key to scalable virtual private networks (VPNs) and end-to-end quality of service (QoS), enabling efficient utilization of existing networks to meet future growth and rapid fault correction of link and node failure. The technology also helps deliver highly scalable, differentiated end-to-end IP services with simpler configuration, management, and provisioning for both Internet providers and subscribers.