Internet Draft


Network Working Group                                      Eric C. Rosen
Internet Draft                                       Cisco Systems, Inc.
Expiration Date: February 1998
                                                        Arun Viswanathan
                                                               IBM Corp.

                                                             Ross Callon
                                             Ascend Communications, Inc.

                                                             August 1997


                    A Proposed Architecture for MPLS


                      draft-ietf-mpls-arch-00.txt

Status of this Memo

   This document is an Internet-Draft.  Internet-Drafts are working
   documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas,
   and its working groups.  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
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   To learn the current status of any Internet-Draft, please check the
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   ftp.isi.edu (US West Coast).


Abstract

   This internet draft contains a draft protocol architecture for
   multiprotocol label switching (MPLS). The proposed architecture is
   based on other label switching approaches [2-11] as well as on the
   MPLS Framework document [1].









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Table of Contents

    1          Introduction to MPLS  ...............................   3
    1.1        Overview  ...........................................   3
    1.2        Terminology  ........................................   5
    1.3        Acronyms and Abbreviations  .........................   9
    1.4        Acknowledgments  ....................................  10
    2          Outline of Approach  ................................  10
    2.1        Labels  .............................................  10
    2.2        Upstream and Downstream LSRs  .......................  11
    2.3        Labeled Packet  .....................................  11
    2.4        Label Assignment and Distribution; Attributes  ......  11
    2.5        Label Distribution Protocol (LDP)  ..................  12
    2.6        The Label Stack  ....................................  12
    2.7        The Next Hop Label Forwarding Entry (NHLFE)  ........  13
    2.8        Incoming Label Map (ILM)  ...........................  13
    2.9        Stream-to-NHLFE Map (STN)  ..........................  13
    2.10       Label Swapping  .....................................  14
    2.11       Label Switched Path (LSP), LSP Ingress, LSP Egress  .  14
    2.12       LSP Next Hop  .......................................  16
    2.13       Route Selection  ....................................  17
    2.14       Time-to-Live (TTL)  .................................  18
    2.15       Loop Control  .......................................  19
    2.15.1     Loop Prevention  ....................................  20
    2.15.2     Interworking of Loop Control Options  ...............  22
    2.16       Merging and Non-Merging LSRs  .......................  23
    2.16.1     Stream Merge  .......................................  24
    2.16.2     Non-merging LSRs  ...................................  24
    2.16.3     Labels for Merging and Non-Merging LSRs  ............  25
    2.16.4     Merge over ATM  .....................................  26
    2.16.4.1   Methods of Eliminating Cell Interleave  .............  26
    2.16.4.2   Interoperation: VC Merge, VP Merge, and Non-Merge  ..  26
    2.17       LSP Control: Egress versus Local  ...................  27
    2.18       Granularity  ........................................  29
    2.19       Tunnels and Hierarchy  ..............................  30
    2.19.1     Hop-by-Hop Routed Tunnel  ...........................  30
    2.19.2     Explicitly Routed Tunnel  ...........................  30
    2.19.3     LSP Tunnels  ........................................  30
    2.19.4     Hierarchy: LSP Tunnels within LSPs  .................  31
    2.19.5     LDP Peering and Hierarchy  ..........................  31
    2.20       LDP Transport  ......................................  33
    2.21       Label Encodings  ....................................  33
    2.21.1     MPLS-specific Hardware and/or Software  .............  33
    2.21.2     ATM Switches as LSRs  ...............................  34
    2.21.3     Interoperability among Encoding Techniques  .........  35
    2.22       Multicast  ..........................................  36



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    3          Some Applications of MPLS  ..........................  36
    3.1        MPLS and Hop by Hop Routed Traffic  .................  36
    3.1.1      Labels for Address Prefixes  ........................  36
    3.1.2      Distributing Labels for Address Prefixes  ...........  36
    3.1.2.1    LDP Peers for a Particular Address Prefix  ..........  36
    3.1.2.2    Distributing Labels  ................................  37
    3.1.3      Using the Hop by Hop path as the LSP  ...............  38
    3.1.4      LSP Egress and LSP Proxy Egress  ....................  38
    3.1.5      The POP Label  ......................................  39
    3.1.6      Option: Egress-Targeted Label Assignment  ...........  40
    3.2        MPLS and Explicitly Routed LSPs  ....................  41
    3.2.1      Explicitly Routed LSP Tunnels: Traffic Engineering  .  42
    3.3        Label Stacks and Implicit Peering  ..................  42
    3.4        MPLS and Multi-Path Routing  ........................  43
    3.5        LSPs may be Multipoint-to-Point Entities  ...........  44
    3.6        LSP Tunneling between BGP Border Routers  ...........  44
    3.7        Other Uses of Hop-by-Hop Routed LSP Tunnels  ........  46
    3.8        MPLS and Multicast  .................................  46
    4          LDP Procedures  .....................................  47
    5          Security Considerations  ............................  47
    6          Authors' Addresses  .................................  47
    7          References  .........................................  47
    Appendix A Why Egress Control is Better  .......................  48
    Appendix B Why Local Control is Better  ........................  56




1. Introduction to MPLS

1.1. Overview

   In connectionless network layer protocols, as a packet travels from
   one router hop to the next, an independent forwarding decision is
   made at each hop.  Each router analyzes the packet header, and runs a
   network layer routing algorithm. The next hop for a packet is chosen
   based on the header analysis and the result of running the routing
   algorithm.

   Packet headers contain considerably more information than is needed
   simply to choose the next hop. Choosing the next hop can therefore be
   thought of as the composition of two functions. The first function
   partitions the entire packet forwarding space into "forwarding
   equivalence classes (FECs)".  The second maps these FECs to a next
   hop.  Multiple network layer headers which get mapped into the same
   FEC are indistinguishable, as far as the forwarding decision is
   concerned. The set of packets belonging to the same FEC, traveling
   from a common node, will follow the same path and be forwarded in the



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   same manner (for example, by being placed in a common queue) towards
   the destination.  This set of packets following the same path,
   belonging to the same FEC (and therefore being forwarded in a common
   manner) may be referred to as a "stream".

   In IP forwarding, multiple packets are typically assigned to the same
   Stream by a particular router if there is some address prefix X in
   that router's routing tables such that X is the "longest match" for
   each packet's destination address.

   In MPLS, the mapping from packet headers to stream is performed just
   once, as the packet enters the network.  The stream to which the
   packet is assigned is encoded with a short fixed length value known
   as a "label". When a packet is forwarded to its next hop, the label
   is sent along with it; that is, the packets are "labeled".

   At subsequent hops, there is no further analysis of the network layer
   header. Rather, the label is used as an index into a table which
   specifies the next hop, and a new label.  The old label is replaced
   with the new label, and the packet is forwarded to its next hop. This
   eliminates the need to perform a longest match computation for each
   packet at each hop; the computation can be performed just once.

   Some routers analyze a packet's network layer header not merely to
   choose the packet's next hop, but also to determine a packet's
   "precedence" or "class of service", in order to apply different
   discard thresholds or scheduling disciplines to different packets. In
   MPLS, this can also be inferred from the label, so that no further
   header analysis is needed.

   The fact that a packet is assigned to a Stream just once, rather than
   at every hop, allows the use of sophisticated forwarding paradigms.
   A packet that enters the network at a particular router can be
   labeled differently than the same packet entering the network at a
   different router, and as a result forwarding decisions that depend on
   the ingress point ("policy routing") can be easily made.  In fact,
   the policy used to assign a packet to a Stream need not have only the
   network layer header as input; it may use arbitrary information about
   the packet, and/or arbitrary policy information as input.  Since this
   decouples forwarding from routing, it allows one to use MPLS to
   support a large variety of routing policies that are difficult or
   impossible to support with just conventional network layer
   forwarding.

   Similarly, MPLS facilitates the use of explicit routing, without
   requiring that each IP packet carry the explicit route. Explicit
   routes may be useful to support policy routing and traffic
   engineering.



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   MPLS makes use of a routing approach whereby the normal mode of
   operation is that L3 routing (e.g., existing IP routing protocols
   and/or new IP routing protocols) is used by all nodes to determine
   the routed path.

   MPLS stands for "Multiprotocol" Label Switching, multiprotocol
   because its techniques are applicable to ANY network layer protocol.
   In this document, however, we focus on the use of IP as the network
   layer protocol.

   A router which supports MPLS is known as a "Label Switching Router",
   or LSR.

   A general discussion of issues related to MPLS is presented in "A
   Framework for Multiprotocol Label Switching" [1].


1.2. Terminology

   This section gives a general conceptual overview of the terms used in
   this document. Some of these terms are more precisely defined in
   later sections of the document.

     aggregate stream          synonym of "stream"

     DLCI                      a label used in Frame Relay networks to
                               identify frame relay circuits

     flow                      a single instance of an application to
                               application flow of data (as in the RSVP
                               and IFMP use of the term "flow")

     forwarding equivalence class   a group of IP packets which are
                                    forwarded in the same manner (e.g.,
                                    over the same path, with the same
                                    forwarding treatment)

     frame merge               stream merge, when it is applied to
                               operation over frame based media, so that
                               the potential problem of cell interleave
                               is not an issue.

     label                     a short fixed length physically
                               contiguous identifier which is used to
                               identify a stream, usually of local
                               significance.





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     label information base    the database of information containing
                               label bindings

     label swap                the basic forwarding operation consisting
                               of looking up an incoming label to
                               determine the outgoing label,
                               encapsulation, port, and other data
                               handling information.

     label swapping            a forwarding paradigm allowing
                               streamlined forwarding of data by using
                               labels to identify streams of data to be
                               forwarded.

     label switched hop        the hop between two MPLS nodes, on which
                               forwarding is done using labels.

     label switched path       the path created by the concatenation of
                               one or more label switched hops, allowing
                               a packet to be forwarded by swapping
                               labels from an MPLS node to another MPLS
                               node.

     layer 2                   the protocol layer under layer 3 (which
                               therefore offers the services used by
                               layer 3).  Forwarding, when done by the
                               swapping of short fixed length labels,
                               occurs at layer 2 regardless of whether
                               the label being examined is an ATM
                               VPI/VCI, a frame relay DLCI, or an MPLS
                               label.

     layer 3                   the protocol layer at which IP and its
                               associated routing protocols operate link
                               layer synonymous with layer 2

     loop detection            a method of dealing with loops in which
                               loops are allowed to be set up, and data
                               may be transmitted over the loop, but the
                               loop is later detected and closed

     loop prevention           a method of dealing with loops in which
                               data is never transmitted over a loop

     label stack               an ordered set of labels






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     loop survival             a method of dealing with loops in which
                               data may be transmitted over a loop, but
                               means are employed to limit the amount of
                               network resources which may be consumed
                               by the looping data

     label switched path       The path through one or more LSRs at one
                               level of the hierarchy followed by a
                               stream.

     label switching router    an MPLS node which is capable of
                               forwarding native L3 packets

     merge point               the node at which multiple streams and
                               switched paths are combined into a single
                               stream sent over a single path.

     Mlabel                    abbreviation for MPLS label

     MPLS core standards       the standards which describe the core
                               MPLS technology

     MPLS domain               a contiguous set of nodes which operate
                               MPLS routing and forwarding and which are
                               also in one Routing or Administrative
                               Domain

     MPLS edge node            an MPLS node that connects an MPLS domain
                               with a node which is outside of the
                               domain, either because it does not run
                               MPLS, and/or because it is in a different
                               domain. Note that if an LSR has a
                               neighboring host which is not running
                               MPLS, that that LSR is an MPLS edge node.

     MPLS egress node          an MPLS edge node in its role in handling
                               traffic as it leaves an MPLS domain

     MPLS ingress node         an MPLS edge node in its role in handling
                               traffic as it enters an MPLS domain

     MPLS label                a label placed in a short MPLS shim
                               header used to identify streams

     MPLS node                 a node which is running MPLS. An MPLS
                               node will be aware of MPLS control
                               protocols, will operate one or more L3
                               routing protocols, and will be capable of



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                               forwarding packets based on labels.  An
                               MPLS node may optionally be also capable
                               of forwarding native L3 packets.

     MultiProtocol Label Switching  an IETF working group and the effort
                                    associated with the working group

     network layer             synonymous with layer 3

     stack                     synonymous with label stack

     stream                    an aggregate of one or more flows,
                               treated as one aggregate for the purpose
                               of forwarding in L2 and/or L3 nodes
                               (e.g., may be described using a single
                               label). In many cases a stream may be the
                               aggregate of a very large number of
                               flows.  Synonymous with "aggregate
                               stream".

     stream merge              the merging of several smaller streams
                               into a larger stream, such that for some
                               or all of the path the larger stream can
                               be referred to using a single label.

     switched path             synonymous with label switched path

     virtual circuit           a circuit used by a connection-oriented
                               layer 2 technology such as ATM or Frame
                               Relay, requiring the maintenance of state
                               information in layer 2 switches.

     VC merge                  stream merge when it is specifically
                               applied to VCs, specifically so as to
                               allow multiple VCs to merge into one
                               single VC

     VP merge                  stream merge when it is applied to VPs,
                               specifically so as to allow multiple VPs
                               to merge into one single VP. In this case
                               the VCIs need to be unique. This allows
                               cells from different sources to be
                               distinguished via the VCI.

     VPI/VCI                   a label used in ATM networks to identify
                               circuits





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1.3. Acronyms and Abbreviations

   ATM                       Asynchronous Transfer Mode

   BGP                       Border Gateway Protocol

   DLCI                      Data Link Circuit Identifier

   FEC                       Forwarding Equivalence Class

   STN                       Stream to NHLFE Map

   IGP                       Interior Gateway Protocol

   ILM                       Incoming Label Map

   IP                        Internet Protocol

   LIB                       Label Information Base

   LDP                       Label Distribution Protocol

   L2                        Layer 2

   L3                        Layer 3

   LSP                       Label Switched Path

   LSR                       Label Switching Router

   MPLS                      MultiProtocol Label Switching

   MPT                       Multipoint to Point Tree

   NHLFE                     Next Hop Label Forwarding Entry

   SVC                       Switched Virtual Circuit

   SVP                       Switched Virtual Path

   TTL                       Time-To-Live

   VC                        Virtual Circuit

   VCI                       Virtual Circuit Identifier

   VP                        Virtual Path




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   VPI                       Virtual Path Identifier


1.4. Acknowledgments

   The ideas and text in this document have been collected from a number
   of sources and comments received. We would like to thank Rick Boivie,
   Paul Doolan, Nancy Feldman, Yakov Rekhter, Vijay Srinivasan, and
   George Swallow for their inputs and ideas.



2. Outline of Approach

   In this section, we introduce some of the basic concepts of MPLS and
   describe the general approach to be used.


2.1. Labels

   A label is a short fixed length locally significant identifier which
   is used to identify a stream. The label is based on the stream or
   forwarding equivalence class that a packet is assigned to. The label
   does not directly encode the network layer address, and is based on
   the network layer address only to the extent that the forwarding
   equivalence class is based on the address.

   If Ru and Rd are neighboring LSRs, they may agree to use label L to
   represent Stream S for packets which are sent from Ru to Rd.  That
   is, they can agree to a "mapping" between label L and Stream S for
   packets moving from Ru to Rd.  As a result of such an agreement, L
   becomes Ru's "outgoing label" corresponding to Stream S for such
   packets; L becomes Rd's "incoming label" corresponding to Stream S
   for such packets.

   Note that L does not necessarily correspond to Stream S for any
   packets other than those which are being sent from Ru to Rd.  Also, L
   is not an inherently meaningful value and does not have any network-
   wide value; the particular value assigned to L gets its meaning
   solely from the agreement between Ru and Rd.

   Sometimes it may be difficult or even impossible for Rd to tell that
   an arriving packet carrying label L comes from Ru, rather than from
   some other LSR.  In such cases, Rd must make sure that the mapping
   from label to FEC is one-to-one.  That is, in such cases, Rd must not
   agree with Ru1 to use L for one purpose, while also agreeing with
   some other LSR Ru2 to use L for a different purpose.




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   The scope of labels could be unique per interface, or unique per MPLS
   node, or unique in a network. If labels are unique within a network,
   no label swapping needs to be performed in the MPLS nodes in that
   domain.  The packets are just label forwarded and not label swapped.
   The possible use of labels with network-wide scope is FFS.


2.2. Upstream and Downstream LSRs

   Suppose Ru and Rd have agreed to map label L to Stream S, for packets
   sent from Ru to Rd.  Then with respect to this mapping, Ru is the
   "upstream LSR", and Rd is the "downstream LSR".

   The notion of upstream and downstream relate to agreements between
   nodes of the label values to be assigned for packets belonging to a
   particular Stream that might be traveling from an upstream node to a
   downstream node. This is independent of whether the routing protocol
   actually will cause any packets to be transmitted in that particular
   direction. Thus, Rd is the downstream LSR for a particular mapping
   for label L if it recognizes L-labeled packets from Ru as being in
   Stream S.  This may be true even if routing does not actually forward
   packets for Stream S between nodes Rd and Ru, or if routing has made
   Ru downstream of Rd along the path which is actually used for packets
   in Stream S.


2.3. Labeled Packet

   A "labeled packet" is a packet into which a label has been encoded.
   The encoding can be done by means of an encapsulation which exists
   specifically for this purpose, or by placing the label in an
   available location in either of the data link or network layer
   headers. Of course, the encoding technique must be agreed to by the
   entity which encodes the label and the entity which decodes the
   label.


2.4. Label Assignment and Distribution; Attributes

   For unicast traffic in the MPLS architecture, the decision to bind a
   particular label L to a particular Stream S is made by the LSR which
   is downstream with respect to that mapping.  The downstream LSR then
   informs the upstream LSR of the mapping.  Thus labels are
   "downstream-assigned", and are "distributed upstream".

   A particular mapping of label L to Stream S, distributed by Rd to Ru,
   may have associated "attributes".  If Ru, acting as a downstream LSR,
   also distributes a mapping of a label to Stream S, then under certain



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   conditions, it may be required to also distribute the corresponding
   attribute that it received from Rd.


2.5. Label Distribution Protocol (LDP)

   A Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) is a set of procedures by which
   one LSR informs another of the label/Stream mappings it has made.
   Two LSRs which use an LDP to exchange label/Stream mapping
   information are known as "LDP Peers" with respect to the mapping
   information they exchange; we will speak of there being an "LDP
   Adjacency" between them.

   (N.B.: two LSRs may be LDP Peers with respect to some set of
   mappings, but not with respect to some other set of mappings.)

   The LDP also encompasses any negotiations in which two LDP Peers need
   to engage in order to learn of each other's MPLS capabilities.


2.6. The Label Stack

   So far, we have spoken as if a labeled packet carries only a single
   label. As we shall see, it is useful to have a more general model in
   which a labeled packet carries a number of labels, organized as a
   last-in, first-out stack.  We refer to this as a "label stack".

   At a particular LSR, the decision as to how to forward a labeled
   packet is always based exclusively on the label at the top of the
   stack.

   An unlabeled packet can be thought of as a packet whose label stack
   is empty (i.e., whose label stack has depth 0).

   If a packet's label stack is of depth m, we refer to the label at the
   bottom of the stack as the level 1 label, to the label above it (if
   such exists) as the level 2 label, and to the label at the top of the
   stack as the level m label.

   The utility of the label stack will become clear when we introduce
   the notion of LSP Tunnel and the MPLS Hierarchy (sections 2.19.3 and
   2.19.4).









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2.7. The Next Hop Label Forwarding Entry (NHLFE)

   The "Next Hop Label Forwarding Entry" (NHLFE) is used when forwarding
   a labeled packet. It contains the following information:

      1. the packet's next hop

      2. the data link encapsulation to use when transmitting the packet

      3. the way to encode the label stack when transmitting the packet

      4. the operation to perform on the packet's label stack; this is
         one of the following operations:

            a) replace the label at the top of the label stack with a
               specified new label

            b) pop the label stack

            c) replace the label at the top of the label stack with a
               specified new label, and then push one or more specified
               new labels onto the label stack.

   Note that at a given LSR, the packet's "next hop" might be that LSR
   itself.  In this case, the LSR would need to pop the top level label
   and examine and operate on the encapsulated packet. This may be a
   lower level label, or may be the native IP packet. This implies that
   in some cases the LSR may need to operate on the IP header in order
   to forward the packet. If the packet's "next hop" is the current LSR,
   then the label stack operation MUST be to "pop the stack".


2.8. Incoming Label Map (ILM)

   The "Incoming Label Map" (ILM) is a mapping from incoming labels to
   NHLFEs. It is used when forwarding packets that arrive as labeled
   packets.


2.9. Stream-to-NHLFE Map (STN)

   The "Stream-to-NHLFE" (STN) is a mapping from stream to NHLFEs. It is
   used when forwarding packets that arrive unlabeled, but which are to
   be labeled before being forwarded.







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2.10. Label Swapping

   Label swapping is the use of the following procedures to forward a
   packet.

   In order to forward a labeled packet, a LSR examines the label at the
   top of the label stack. It uses the ILM to map this label to an
   NHLFE.  Using the information in the NHLFE, it determines where to
   forward the packet, and performs an operation on the packet's label
   stack. It then encodes the new label stack into the packet, and
   forwards the result.

   In order to forward an unlabeled packet, a LSR analyzes the network
   layer header, to determine the packet's Stream. It then uses the FTN
   to map this to an NHLFE. Using the information in the NHLFE, it
   determines where to forward the packet, and performs an operation on
   the packet's label stack.  (Popping the label stack would, of course,
   be illegal in this case.)  It then encodes the new label stack into
   the packet, and forwards the result.

   It is important to note that when label swapping is in use, the next
   hop is always taken from the NHLFE; this may in some cases be
   different from what the next hop would be if MPLS were not in use.


2.11. Label Switched Path (LSP), LSP Ingress, LSP Egress

   A "Label Switched Path (LSP) of level m" for a particular packet P is
   a sequence of LSRs,

                               

   with the following properties:

      1. R1, the "LSP Ingress", pushes a label onto P's label stack,
         resulting in a label stack of depth m;

      2. For all i, 1draft-ietf-mpls-arch-00.txt            August 1997


      5. For all i, 10).

   In other words, we can speak of the level m LSP for Packet P as the
   sequence of LSRs:

      1. which begins with an LSR (an "LSP Ingress") that pushes on a
         level m label,

      2. all of whose intermediate LSRs make their forwarding decision
         by label Switching on a level m label,

      3. which ends (at an "LSP Egress") when a forwarding decision is
         made by label Switching on a level m-k label, where k>0, or
         when a forwarding decision is made by "ordinary", non-MPLS
         forwarding procedures.

   A consequence (or perhaps a presupposition) of this is that whenever
   an LSR pushes a label onto an already labeled packet, it needs to
   make sure that the new label corresponds to a FEC whose LSP Egress is
   the LSR that assigned the label which is now second in the stack.

   Note that according to these definitions, if  is a level
   m LSP for packet P, P may be transmitted from R[n-1] to Rn with a
   label stack of depth m-1. That is, the label stack may be popped at
   the penultimate LSR of the LSP, rather than at the LSP Egress. This
   is appropriate, since the level m label has served its function of
   getting the packet to Rn, and Rn's forwarding decision cannot be made
   until the level m label is popped.  If the label stack is not popped
   by R[n-1], then Rn must do two label lookups; this is an overhead
   which is best avoided.  However, some hardware switching engines may
   not be able to pop the label stack.

   The penultimate node pops the label stack only if this is
   specifically requested by the egress node. Having the penultimate
   node pop the label stack has an implication on the assignment of
   labels: For any one node Rn, operating at level m in the MPLS



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   hierarchy, there may be some LSPs which terminate at that node (i.e.,
   for which Rn is the egress node) and some other LSPs which continue
   beyond that node (i.e., for which Rn is an intermediate node). If the
   penultimate node R[n-1] pops the stack for those LSPs which terminate
   at Rn, then node R[n] will receive some packets for which the top of
   the stack is a level m label (i.e., packets destined for other egress
   nodes), and some packets for which the top of the stack is a level
   m-1 label (i.e., packets for which Rn is the egress). This implies
   that in order for node R[n-1] to pop the stack, node Rn must assign
   labels such that level m and level m-1 labels are distinguishable
   (i.e., use unique values across multiple levels of the MPLS
   hierarchy).

   Note that if m = 1, the LSP Egress may receive an unlabeled packet,
   and in fact need not even be capable of supporting MPLS. In this
   case, assuming that we are using globally meaningful IP addresses,
   the confusion of labels at multiple levels is not possible. However,
   it is possible that the label may still be of value for the egress
   node. One example is that the label may be used to assign the packet
   to a particular Forwarding Equivalence Class (for example, to
   identify the packet as a high priority packet). Another example is
   that the label may assign the packet to a particular virtual private
   network (for example, the virtual private network may make use of
   local IP addresses, and the label may be necessary to disambiguate
   the addresses). Therefore even when there is only a single label
   value the stack is nonetheless popped only when requested by the
   egress node.

   We will call a sequence of LSRs the "LSP for a particular Stream S"
   if it is an LSP of level m for a particular packet P when P's level m
   label is a label corresponding to Stream S.


2.12. LSP Next Hop

   The LSP Next Hop for a particular labeled packet in a particular LSR
   is the LSR which is the next hop, as selected by the NHLFE entry used
   for forwarding that packet.

   The LSP Next Hop for a particular Stream is the next hop as selected
   by the NHLFE entry indexed by a label which corresponds to that
   Stream.









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2.13. Route Selection

   Route selection refers to the method used for selecting the LSP for a
   particular stream. The proposed MPLS protocol architecture supports
   two options for Route Selection: (1) Hop by hop routing, and (2)
   Explicit routing.

   Hop by hop routing allows each node to independently choose the next
   hop for the path for a stream. This is the normal mode today with
   existing datagram IP networks. A hop by hop routed LSP refers to an
   LSP whose route is selected using hop by hop routing.

   An explicitly routed LSP is an LSP where, at a given LSR, the LSP
   next hop is not chosen by each local node, but rather is chosen by a
   single node (usually the ingress or egress node of the LSP). The
   sequence of LSRs followed by an explicit routing LSP may be chosen by
   configuration, or by a protocol selected by a single node (for
   example, the egress node may make use of the topological information
   learned from a link state database in order to compute the entire
   path for the tree ending at that egress node). Explicit routing may
   be useful for a number of purposes such as allowing policy routing
   and/or facilitating traffic engineering.  With MPLS the explicit
   route needs to be specified at the time that Labels are assigned, but
   the explicit route does not have to be specified with each IP packet.
   This implies that explicit routing with MPLS is relatively efficient
   (when compared with the efficiency of explicit routing for pure
   datagrams).

   For any one LSP (at any one level of hierarchy), there are two
   possible options: (i) The entire LSP may be hop by hop routed from
   ingress to egress; (ii) The entire LSP may be explicit routed from
   ingress to egress. Intermediate cases do not make sense: In general,
   an LSP will be explicit routed specifically because there is a good
   reason to use an alternative to the hop by hop routed path. This
   implies that if some of the nodes along the path follow an explicit
   route but some of the nodes make use of hop by hop routing, then
   inconsistent routing will result and loops (or severely inefficient
   paths) may form.

   For this reason, it is important that if an explicit route is
   specified for an LSP, then that route must be followed. Note that it
   is relatively simple to *follow* an explicit route which is specified
   in a LDP setup.  We therefore propose that the LDP specification
   require that all MPLS nodes implement the ability to follow an
   explicit route if this is specified.

   It is not necessary for a node to be able to create an explicit
   route.  However, in order to ensure interoperability it is necessary



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   to ensure that either (i) Every node knows how to use hop by hop
   routing; or (ii) Every node knows how to create and follow an
   explicit route. We propose that due to the common use of hop by hop
   routing in networks today, it is reasonable to make hop by hop
   routing the default that all nodes need to be able to use.


2.14. Time-to-Live (TTL)

   In conventional IP forwarding, each packet carries a "Time To Live"
   (TTL) value in its header.  Whenever a packet passes through a
   router, its TTL gets decremented by 1; if the TTL reaches 0 before
   the packet has reached its destination, the packet gets discarded.

   This provides some level of protection against forwarding loops that
   may exist due to misconfigurations, or due to failure or slow
   convergence of the routing algorithm. TTL is sometimes used for other
   functions as well, such as multicast scoping, and supporting the
   "traceroute" command. This implies that there are two TTL-related
   issues that MPLS needs to deal with: (i) TTL as a way to suppress
   loops; (ii) TTL as a way to accomplish other functions, such as
   limiting the scope of a packet.

   When a packet travels along an LSP, it should emerge with the same
   TTL value that it would have had if it had traversed the same
   sequence of routers without having been label switched.  If the
   packet travels along a hierarchy of LSPs, the total number of LSR-
   hops traversed should be reflected in its TTL value when it emerges
   from the hierarchy of LSPs.

   The way that TTL is handled may vary depending upon whether the MPLS
   label values are carried in an MPLS-specific "shim" header, or if the
   MPLS labels are carried in an L2 header such as an ATM header or a
   frame relay header.

   If the label values are encoded in a "shim" that sits between the
   data link and network layer headers, then this shim should have a TTL
   field that is initially loaded from the network layer header TTL
   field, is decremented at each LSR-hop, and is copied into the network
   layer header TTL field when the packet emerges from its LSP.

   If the label values are encoded in an L2 header (e.g., the VPI/VCI
   field in ATM's AAL5 header), and the labeled packets are forwarded by
   an L2 switch (e.g., an ATM switch). This implies that unless the data
   link layer itself has a TTL field (unlike ATM), it will not be
   possible to decrement a packet's TTL at each LSR-hop. An LSP segment
   which consists of a sequence of LSRs that cannot decrement a packet's
   TTL will be called a "non-TTL LSP segment".



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   When a packet emerges from a non-TTL LSP segment, it should however
   be given a TTL that reflects the number of LSR-hops it traversed. In
   the unicast case, this can be achieved by propagating a meaningful
   LSP length to ingress nodes, enabling the ingress to decrement the
   TTL value before forwarding packets into a non-TTL LSP segment.

   Sometimes it can be determined, upon ingress to a non-TTL LSP
   segment, that a particular packet's TTL will expire before the packet
   reaches the egress of that non-TTL LSP segment. In this case, the LSR
   at the ingress to the non-TTL LSP segment must not label switch the
   packet. This means that special procedures must be developed to
   support traceroute functionality, for example, traceroute packets may
   be forwarded using conventional hop by hop forwarding.


2.15. Loop Control

   On a non-TTL LSP segment, by definition, TTL cannot be used to
   protect against forwarding loops.  The importance of loop control may
   depend on the particular hardware being used to provide the LSR
   functions along the non-TTL LSP segment.

   Suppose, for instance, that ATM switching hardware is being used to
   provide MPLS switching functions, with the label being carried in the
   VPI/VCI field. Since ATM switching hardware cannot decrement TTL,
   there is no protection against loops. If the ATM hardware is capable
   of providing fair access to the buffer pool for incoming cells
   carrying different VPI/VCI values, this looping may not have any
   deleterious effect on other traffic. If the ATM hardware cannot
   provide fair buffer access of this sort, however, then even transient
   loops may cause severe degradation of the LSR's total performance.

   Even if fair buffer access can be provided, it is still worthwhile to
   have some means of detecting loops that last "longer than possible".
   In addition, even where TTL and/or per-VC fair queuing provides a
   means for surviving loops, it still may be desirable where practical
   to avoid setting up LSPs which loop.

   The MPLS architecture will therefore provide a technique for ensuring
   that looping LSP segments can be detected, and a technique for
   ensuring that looping LSP segments are never created.










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2.15.1. Loop Prevention

   LSR's maintain for each of their LSP's an LSR id list. This list is a
   list of all the LSR's downstream from this LSR on a given LSP. The
   LSR id list is used to prevent the formation of switched path loops.
   The LSR ID list is propagated upstream from a node to its neighbor
   nodes.  The LSR ID list is used to prevent loops as follows:

   When a node, R, detects a change in the next hop for a given stream,
   it asks its new next hop for a label and the associated LSR ID list
   for that stream.

   The new next hop responds with a label for the stream and an
   associated LSR id list.

   R looks in the LSR id list. If R determines that it, R, is in the
   list then we have a route loop. In this case, we do nothing and the
   old LSP will continue to be used until the route protocols break the
   loop. The means by which the old LSP is replaced by a new LSP after
   the route protocols breathe loop is described below.

   If R is not in the LSR id list, R will start a "diffusion"
   computation [12].  The purpose of the diffusion computation is to
   prune the tree upstream of R so that we remove all LSR's from the
   tree that would be on a looping path if R were to switch over to the
   new LSP.  After those LSR's are removed from the tree, it is safe for
   R to replace the old LSP with the new LSP (and the old LSP can be
   released).

   The diffusion computation works as follows:

   R adds its LSR id to the list and sends a query message to each of
   its "upstream" neighbors (i.e. to each of its neighbors that is not
   the new "downstream" next hop).

   A node S that receives such a query will process the query as
   follows:

     - If node R is not node S's next hop for the given stream, node S
       will respond to node R will an "OK" message meaning that as far
       as node S is concerned it is safe for node R to switch over to
       the new LSP.

     - If node R is node S's next hop for the stream, node S will check
       to see if it, node S, is in the LSR id list that it received from
       node R.  If it is, we have a route loop and S will respond with a
       "LOOP" message.  R will unsplice the connection to S pruning S
       from the tree.  The mechanism by which S will get a new LSP for



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       the stream after the route protocols break the loop is described
       below.

     - If node S is not in the LSR id list, S will add its LSR id to the
       LSR id list and send a new query message further upstream.  The
       diffusion computation will continue to propagate upstream along
       each of the paths in the tree upstream of S until either a loop
       is detected, in which case the node is pruned as described above
       or we get to a point where a node gets a response ("OK" or
       "LOOP") from each of its neighbors perhaps because none of those
       neighbors considers the node in question to be its downstream
       next hop.  Once a node has received a response from each of its
       upstream neighbors, it returns an "OK" message to its downstream
       neighbor.  When the original node, node R, gets a response from
       each of its neighbors, it is safe to replace the old LSP with the
       new one because all the paths that would loop have been pruned
       from the tree.

   There are a couple of details to discuss:

     - First, we need to do something about nodes that for one reason or
       another do not produce a timely response in response to a query
       message.  If a node Y does not respond to a query from node X
       because of a failure of some kind, X will not be able to respond
       to its downstream neighbors (if any) or switch over to a new LSP
       if X is, like R above, the node that has detected the route
       change.  This problem is handled by timing out the query message.
       If a node doesn't receive a response within a "reasonable" period
       of time, it "unsplices" its VC to the upstream neighbor that is
       not responding and proceeds as it would if it had received the
       "LOOP" message.

     - We also need to be concerned about multiple concurrent routing
       updates.  What happens, for example, when a node M receives a
       request for an LSP from an upstream neighbor, N, when M is in the
       middle of a diffusion computation i.e., it has sent a query
       upstream but hasn't received all the responses.  Since a
       downstream node, node R is about to change from one LSP to
       another, M needs to pass to N an LSR id list corresponding to the
       union of the old and new LSP's if it is to avoid loops both
       before and after the transition.  This is easily accomplished
       since M already has the LSR id list for the old LSP and it gets
       the LSR id list for the new LSP in the query message.  After R
       makes the switch from the old LSP to the new one, R sends a new
       establish message upstream with the LSR id list of (just) the new
       LSP.  At this point, the nodes upstream of R know that R has
       switched over to the new LSP and that they can return the id list
       for (just) the new LSP in response to any new requests for LSP's.



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       They can also grow the tree to include additional nodes that
       would not have been valid for the combined LSR id list.

     - We also need to discuss how a node that doesn't have an LSP for a
       given stream at the end of a diffusion computation (because it
       would have been on a looping LSP) gets one after the routing
       protocols break the loop.  If node L has been pruned from the
       tree and its local route protocol processing entity breaks the
       loop by changing L's next hop, L will request a new LSP from its
       new downstream neighbor which it will use once it executes the
       diffusion computation as described above.  If the loop is broken
       by a route change at another point in the loop, i.e. at a point
       "downstream" of L, L will get a new LSP as the new LSP tree grows
       upstream from the point of the route change as discussed in the
       previous paragraph.

     - Note that when a node is pruned from the tree, the switched path
       upstream of that node remains "connected".  This is important
       since it allows the switched path to get "reconnected" to a
       downstream switched path after a route change with a minimal
       amount of unsplicing and resplicing once the appropriate
       diffusion computation(s) have taken place.

   The LSR Id list can also be used to provide a "loop detection"
   capability.  To use it in this manner, an LSR which sees that it is
   already in the LSR Id list for a particular stream will immediately
   unsplice itself from the switched path for that stream, and will NOT
   pass the LSR Id list further upstream.  The LSR can rejoin a switched
   path for the stream when it changes its next hop for that stream, or
   when it receives a new LSR Id list from its current next hop, in
   which it is not contained.  The diffusion computation would be
   omitted.


2.15.2. Interworking of Loop Control Options

   The MPLS protocol architecture allows some nodes to be using loop
   prevention, while some other nodes are not (i.e., the choice of
   whether or not to use loop prevention may be a local decision). When
   this mix is used, it is not possible for a loop to form which
   includes only nodes which do loop prevention. However, it is possible
   for loops to form which contain a combination of some nodes which do
   loop prevention, and some nodes which do not.

   There are at least four identified cases in which it makes sense to
   combine nodes which do loop prevention with nodes which do not: (i)
   For transition, in intermediate states while transitioning from all
   non-loop-prevention to all loop prevention, or vice versa; (ii) For



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   interoperability, where one vendor implements loop prevention but
   another vendor does not; (iii) Where there is a mixed ATM and
   datagram media network, and where loop prevention is desired over the
   ATM portions of the network but not over the datagram portions; (iv)
   where some of the ATM switches can do fair access to the buffer pool
   on a per-VC basis, and some cannot, and loop prevention is desired
   over the ATM portions of the network which cannot.

   Note that interworking is straightforward.  If an LSR is not doing
   loop prevention, and it receives from a downstream LSR a label
   mapping which contains loop prevention information, it (a) accepts
   the label mapping, (b) does NOT pass the loop prevention information
   upstream, and (c) informs the downstream neighbor that the path is
   loop-free.

   Similarly, if an LSR R which is doing loop prevention receives from a
   downstream LSR a label mapping which does not contain any loop
   prevention information, then R passes the label mapping upstream with
   loop prevention information included as if R were the egress for the
   specified stream.

   Optionally, a node is permitted to implement the ability of either
   doing or not doing loop prevention as options, and is permitted to
   choose which to use for any one particular LSP based on the
   information obtained from downstream nodes. When the label mapping
   arrives from downstream, then the node may choose whether to use loop
   prevention so as to continue to use the same approach as was used in
   the information passed to it. Note that regardless of whether loop
   prevention is used the egress nodes (for any particular LSP) always
   initiates exchange of label mapping information without waiting for
   other nodes to act.


2.16. Merging and Non-Merging LSRs

   Merge allows multiple upstream LSPs to be merged into a single
   downstream LSP. When implemented by multiple nodes, this results in
   the traffic going to a particular egress nodes, based on one
   particular Stream, to follow a multipoint to point tree (MPT), with
   the MPT rooted at the egress node and associated with the Stream.
   This can have a significant effect on reducing the number of labels
   that need to be maintained by any one particular node.

   If merge was not used at all it would be necessary for each node to
   provide the upstream neighbors with a label for each Stream for each
   upstream node which may be forwarding traffic over the link. This
   implies that the number of labels needed might not in general be
   known a priori. However, the use of merge allows a single label to be



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   used per Stream, therefore allowing label assignment to be done in a
   common way without regard for the number of upstream nodes which will
   be using the downstream LSP.

   The proposed MPLS protocol architecture supports LSP merge, while
   allowing nodes which do not support LSP merge. This leads to the
   issue of ensuring correct interoperation between nodes which
   implement merge and those which do not. The issue is somewhat
   different in the case of datagram media versus the case of ATM. The
   different media types will therefore be discussed separately.


2.16.1. Stream Merge

   Let us say that an LSR is capable of Stream Merge if it can receive
   two packets from different incoming interfaces, and/or with different
   labels, and send both packets out the same outgoing interface with
   the same label. This in effect takes two incoming streams and merges
   them into one. Once the packets are transmitted, the information that
   they arrived from different interfaces and/or with different incoming
   labels is lost.

   Let us say that an LSR is not capable of Stream Merge if, for any two
   packets which arrive from different interfaces, or with different
   labels, the packets must either be transmitted out different
   interfaces, or must have different labels.

   An LSR which is capable of Stream Merge (a "Merging LSR") needs to
   maintain only one outgoing label for each FEC. AN LSR which is not
   capable of Stream Merge (a "Non-merging LSR") may need to maintain as
   many as N outgoing labels per FEC, where N is the number of LSRs in
   the network. Hence by supporting Stream Merge, an LSR can reduce its
   number of outgoing labels by a factor of O(N). Since each label in
   use requires the dedication of some amount of resources, this can be
   a significant savings.


2.16.2. Non-merging LSRs

   The MPLS forwarding procedures is very similar to the forwarding
   procedures used by such technologies as ATM and Frame Relay. That is,
   a unit of data arrives, a label (VPI/VCI or DLCI) is looked up in a
   "cross-connect table", on the basis of that lookup an output port is
   chosen, and the label value is rewritten. In fact, it is possible to
   use such technologies for MPLS forwarding; LDP can be used as the
   "signalling protocol" for setting up the cross-connect tables.

   Unfortunately, these technologies do not necessarily support the



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   Stream Merge capability. In ATM, if one attempts to perform Stream
   Merge, the result may be the interleaving of cells from various
   packets. If cells from different packets get interleaved, it is
   impossible to reassemble the packets. Some Frame Relay switches use
   cell switching on their backplanes. These switches may also be
   incapable of supporting Stream Merge, for the same reason -- cells of
   different packets may get interleaved, and there is then no way to
   reassemble the packets.

   We propose to support two solutions to this problem. First, MPLS will
   contain procedures which allow the use of non-merging LSRs. Second,
   MPLS will support procedures which allow certain ATM switches to
   function as merging LSRs.

   Since MPLS supports both merging and non-merging LSRs, MPLS also
   contains procedures to ensure correct interoperation between them.


2.16.3. Labels for Merging and Non-Merging LSRs

   An upstream LSR which supports Stream Merge needs to be sent only one
   label per FEC. An upstream neighbor which does not support Stream
   Merge needs to be sent multiple labels per FEC. However, there is no
   way of knowing a priori how many labels it needs. This will depend on
   how many LSRs are upstream of it with respect to the FEC in question.

   In the MPLS architecture, if a particular upstream neighbor does not
   support Stream Merge, it is not sent any labels for a particular FEC
   unless it explicitly asks for a label for that FEC. The upstream
   neighbor may make multiple such requests, and is given a new label
   each time. When a downstream neighbor receives such a request from
   upstream, and the downstream neighbor does not itself support Stream
   Merge, then it must in turn ask its downstream neighbor for another
   label for the FEC in question.

   It is possible that there may be some nodes which support merge, but
   have a limited number of upstream streams which may be merged into a
   single downstream streams. Suppose for example that due to some
   hardware limitation a node is capable of merging four upstream LSPs
   into a single downstream LSP. Suppose however, that this particular
   node has six upstream LSPs arriving at it for a particular Stream. In
   this case, this node may merge these into two downstream LSPs
   (corresponding to two labels that need to be obtained from the
   downstream neighbor). In this case, the normal operation of the LDP
   implies that the downstream neighbor will supply this node with a
   single label for the Stream. This node can then ask its downstream
   neighbor for one additional label for the Stream, implying that the
   node will thereby obtain the required two labels.



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   The interaction between explicit routing and merge is FFS.


2.16.4. Merge over ATM

2.16.4.1. Methods of Eliminating Cell Interleave

   There are several methods that can be used to eliminate the cell
   interleaving problem in ATM, thereby allowing ATM switches to support
   stream merge: :

      1. VP merge

         When VP merge is used, multiple virtual paths are merged into a
         virtual path, but packets from different sources are
         distinguished by using different VCs within the VP.

      2. VC merge

         When VC merge is used, switches are required to buffer cells
         from one packet until the entire packet is received (this may
         be determined by looking for the AAL5 end of frame indicator).

   VP merge has the advantage that it is compatible with a higher
   percentage of existing ATM switch implementations. This makes it more
   likely that VP merge can be used in existing networks. Unlike VC
   merge, VP merge does not incur any delays at the merge points and
   also does not impose any buffer requirements.  However, it has the
   disadvantage that it requires coordination of the VCI space within
   each VP. There are a number of ways that this can be accomplished.
   Selection of one or more methods is FFS.

   This tradeoff between compatibility with existing equipment versus
   protocol complexity and scalability implies that it is desirable for
   the MPLS protocol to support both VP merge and VC merge. In order to
   do so each ATM switch participating in MPLS needs to know whether its
   immediate ATM neighbors perform VP merge, VC merge, or no merge.


2.16.4.2. Interoperation: VC Merge, VP Merge, and Non-Merge

   The interoperation of the various forms of merging over ATM is most
   easily described by first describing the interoperation of VC merge
   with non-merge.

   In the case where VC merge and non-merge nodes are interconnected the
   forwarding of cells is based in all cases on a VC (i.e., the
   concatenation of the VPI and VCI). For each node, if an upstream



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   neighbor is doing VC merge then that upstream neighbor requires only
   a single VPI/VCI for a particular Stream (this is analogous to the
   requirement for a single label in the case of operation over frame
   media). If the upstream neighbor is not doing merge, then the
   neighbor will require a single VPI/VCI per Stream for itself, plus
   enough VPI/VCIs to pass to its upstream neighbors. The number
   required will be determined by allowing the upstream nodes to request
   additional VPI/VCIs from their downstream neighbors (this is again
   analogous to the method used with frame merge).

   A similar method is possible to support nodes which perform VP merge.
   In this case the VP merge node, rather than requesting a single
   VPI/VCI or a number of VPI/VCIs from its downstream neighbor, instead
   may request a single VP (identified by a VPI) but several VCIs within
   the VP.  Furthermore, suppose that a non-merge node is downstream
   from two different VP merge nodes. This node may need to request one
   VPI/VCI (for traffic originating from itself) plus two VPs (one for
   each upstream node), each associated with a specified set of VCIs (as
   requested from the upstream node).

   In order to support all of VP merge, VC merge, and non-merge, it is
   therefore necessary to allow upstream nodes to request a combination
   of zero or more VC identifiers (consisting of a VPI/VCI), plus zero
   or more VPs (identified by VPIs) each containing a specified number
   of VCs (identified by a set of VCIs which are significant within a
   VP). VP merge nodes would therefore request one VP, with a contained
   VCI for traffic that it originates (if appropriate) plus a VCI for
   each VC requested from above (regardless of whether or not the VC is
   part of a containing VP). VC merge node would request only a single
   VPI/VCI (since they can merge all upstream traffic into a single VC).
   Non-merge nodes would pass on any requests that they get from above,
   plus request a VPI/VCI for traffic that they originate (if
   appropriate).


2.17. LSP Control: Egress versus Local

   There is a choice to be made regarding whether the initial setup of
   LSPs will be initiated by the egress node, or locally by each
   individual node.

   When LSP control is done locally, then each node may at any time pass
   label bindings to its neighbors for each FEC recognized by that node.
   In the normal case that the neighboring nodes recognize the same
   FECs, then nodes may map incoming labels to outgoing labels as part
   of the normal label swapping forwarding method.

   When LSP control is done by the egress, then initially only the



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   egress node passes label bindings to its neighbors corresponding to
   any FECs which leave the MPLS network at that egress node. Other
   nodes wait until they get a label from downstream for a particular
   FEC before passing a corresponding label for the same FEC to upstream
   nodes.

   With local control, since each LSR is (at least initially)
   independently assigning labels to FECs, it is possible that different
   LSRs may make inconsistent decisions. For example, an upstream LSR
   may make a coarse decision (map multiple IP address prefixes to a
   single label) while its downstream neighbor makes a finer grain
   decision (map each individual IP address prefix to a separate label).
   With downstream label assignment this can be corrected by having LSRs
   withdraw labels that it has assigned which are inconsistent with
   downstream labels, and replace them with new consistent label
   assignments.

   Even with egress control it is possible that the choice of egress
   node may change, or the egress may (based on a change in
   configuration) change its mind in terms of the granularity which is
   to be used. This implies the same mechanism will be necessary to
   allow changes in granularity to bubble up to upstream nodes. The
   choice of egress or local control may therefore effect the frequency
   with which this mechanism is used, but will not effect the need for a
   mechanism to achieve consistency of label granularity. Generally
   speaking, the choice of local versus egress control does not appear
   to have any effect on the LDP mechanisms which need to be defined.

   Egress control and local control can interwork in a very
   straightforward manner (although some of the advantages ascribed to
   egress control may be lost, see appendices A and B).  With either
   approach, (assuming downstream label assignment) the egress node will
   initially assign labels for particular FECs and will pass these
   labels to its neighbors. With either approach these label assignments
   will bubble upstream, with the upstream nodes choosing labels that
   are consistent with the labels that they receive from downstream. The
   difference between the two approaches is therefore primarily an issue
   of what each node does prior to obtaining a label assignment for a
   particular FEC from downstream nodes: Does it wait, or does it assign
   a preliminary label under the expectation that it will (probably) be
   correct?

   Regardless of which method is used (local control or egress control)
   each node needs to know (possibly by configuration) what granularity
   to use for labels that it assigns. Where egress control is used, this
   requires each node to know the granularity only for streams which
   leave the MPLS network at that node. For local control, in order to
   avoid the need to withdraw inconsistent labels, each node in the



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   network would need to be configured consistently to know the
   granularity for each stream. However, in many cases this may be done
   by using a single level of granularity which applies to all streams
   (such as "one label per IP prefix in the forwarding table").  The
   choice between local control versus egress control could similarly be
   left as a configuration option.

   Future versions of the MPLS architecture will need to choose between
   three options: (i) Requiring local control; (ii) Requiring egress
   control; or (iii) Allowing a choice of local control or egress
   control. Arguments for local versus egress control are contained in
   appendices A and B.



2.18. Granularity

   When forwarding by label swapping, a stream of packets following a
   stream arriving from upstream may be mapped into an equal or coarser
   grain stream. However, a coarse grain stream (for example, containing
   packets destined for a short IP address prefix covering many subnets)
   cannot be mapped directly into a finer grain stream (for example,
   containing packets destined for a longer IP address prefix covering a
   single subnet). This implies that there needs to be some mechanism
   for ensuring consistency between the granularity of LSPs in an MPLS
   network.

   The method used for ensuring compatibility of granularity may depend
   upon the method used for LSP control.

   When LSP control is local, it is possible that a node may pass a
   coarse grain label to its upstream neighbor(s), and subsequently
   receive a finer grain label from its downstream neighbor. In this
   case the node has two options: (i) It may forward the corresponding
   packets using normal IP datagram forwarding (i.e., by examination of
   the IP header); (ii) It may withdraw the label mappings that it has
   passed to its upstream neighbors, and replace these with finer grain
   label mappings.

   When LSP control is egress based, the label setup originates from the
   egress node and passes upstream. It is therefore straightforward with
   this approach to maintain equally-grained mappings along the route.









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2.19. Tunnels and Hierarchy

   Sometimes a router Ru takes explicit action to cause a particular
   packet to be delivered to another router Rd, even though Ru and Rd
   are not consecutive routers on the Hop-by-hop path for that packet,
   and Rd is not the packet's ultimate destination. For example, this
   may be done by encapsulating the packet inside a network layer packet
   whose destination address is the address of Rd itself. This creates a
   "tunnel" from Ru to Rd. We refer to any packet so handled as a
   "Tunneled Packet".


2.19.1. Hop-by-Hop Routed Tunnel

   If a Tunneled Packet follows the Hop-by-hop path from Ru to Rd, we
   say that it is in an "Hop-by-Hop Routed Tunnel" whose "transmit
   endpoint" is Ru and whose "receive endpoint" is Rd.


2.19.2. Explicitly Routed Tunnel

   If a Tunneled Packet travels from Ru to Rd over a path other than the
   Hop-by-hop path, we say that it is in an "Explicitly Routed Tunnel"
   whose "transmit endpoint" is Ru and whose "receive endpoint" is Rd.
   For example, we might send a packet through an Explicitly Routed
   Tunnel by encapsulating it in a packet which is source routed.


2.19.3. LSP Tunnels

   It is possible to implement a tunnel as a LSP, and use label
   switching rather than network layer encapsulation to cause the packet
   to travel through the tunnel. The tunnel would be a LSP , where R1 is the transmit endpoint of the tunnel, and Rn is the
   receive endpoint of the tunnel. This is called a "LSP Tunnel".

   The set of packets which are to be sent though the LSP tunnel becomes
   a Stream, and each LSR in the tunnel must assign a label to that
   Stream (i.e., must assign a label to the tunnel).  The criteria for
   assigning a particular packet to an LSP tunnel is a local matter at
   the tunnel's transmit endpoint.  To put a packet into an LSP tunnel,
   the transmit endpoint pushes a label for the tunnel onto the label
   stack and sends the labeled packet to the next hop in the tunnel.

   If it is not necessary for the tunnel's receive endpoint to be able
   to determine which packets it receives through the tunnel, as
   discussed earlier, the label stack may be popped at the penultimate
   LSR in the tunnel.



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   A "Hop-by-Hop Routed LSP Tunnel" is a Tunnel that is implemented as
   an hop-by-hop routed LSP between the transmit endpoint and the
   receive endpoint.

   An "Explicitly Routed LSP Tunnel" is a LSP Tunnel that is also an
   Explicitly Routed LSP.


2.19.4. Hierarchy: LSP Tunnels within LSPs

   Consider a LSP . Let us suppose that R1 receives
   unlabeled packet P, and pushes on its label stack the label to cause
   it to follow this path, and that this is in fact the Hop-by-hop path.
   However, let us further suppose that R2 and R3 are not directly
   connected, but are "neighbors" by virtue of being the endpoints of an
   LSP tunnel. So the actual sequence of LSRs traversed by P is .

   When P travels from R1 to R2, it will have a label stack of depth 1.
   R2, switching on the label, determines that P must enter the tunnel.
   R2 first replaces the Incoming label with a label that is meaningful
   to R3.  Then it pushes on a new label. This level 2 label has a value
   which is meaningful to R21. Switching is done on the level 2 label by
   R21, R22, R23. R23, which is the penultimate hop in the R2-R3 tunnel,
   pops the label stack before forwarding the packet to R3. When R3 sees
   packet P, P has only a level 1 label, having now exited the tunnel.
   Since R3 is the penultimate hop in P's level 1 LSP, it pops the label
   stack, and R4 receives P unlabeled.

   The label stack mechanism allows LSP tunneling to nest to any depth.


2.19.5. LDP Peering and Hierarchy

   Suppose that packet P travels along a Level 1 LSP ,
   and when going from R2 to R3 travels along a Level 2 LSP .  From the perspective of the Level 2 LSP, R2's LDP peer is
   R21.  From the perspective of the Level 1 LSP, R2's LDP peers are R1
   and R3.  One can have LDP peers at each layer of hierarchy.  We will
   see in sections 3.6 and 3.7 some ways to make use of this hierarchy.
   Note that in this example, R2 and R21 must be IGP neighbors, but R2
   and R3 need not be.

   When two LSRs are IGP neighbors, we will refer to them as "Local LDP
   Peers".  When two LSRs may be LDP peers, but are not IGP neighbors,
   we will refer to them as "Remote LDP Peers".  In the above example,
   R2 and R21 are local LDP peers, but R2 and R3 are remote LDP peers.




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   The MPLS architecture supports two ways to distribute labels at
   different layers of the hierarchy: Explicit Peering and Implicit
   Peering.

   One performs label Distribution with one's Local LDP Peers by opening
   LDP connections to them.  One can perform label Distribution with
   one's Remote LDP Peers in one of two ways:

      1. Explicit Peering

         In explicit peering, one sets up LDP connections between Remote
         LDP Peers, exactly as one would do for Local LDP Peers.  This
         technique is most useful when the number of Remote LDP Peers is
         small, or the number of higher level label mappings is large,
         or the Remote LDP Peers are in distinct routing areas or
         domains.  Of course, one needs to know which labels to
         distribute to which peers; this is addressed in section 3.1.2.

         Examples of the use of explicit peering is found in sections
         3.2.1 and 3.6.

      2. Implicit Peering

         In Implicit Peering, one does not have LDP connections to one's
         remote LDP peers, but only to one's local LDP peers.  To
         distribute higher level labels to ones remote LDP peers, one
         encodes the higher level labels as an attribute of the lower
         level labels, and distributes the lower level label, along with
         this attribute, to the local LDP peers. The local LDP peers
         then propagate the information to their peers. This process
         continues till the information reaches remote LDP peers. Note
         that the intermediary nodes may also be remote LDP peers.

         This technique is most useful when the number of Remote LDP
         Peers is large. Implicit peering does not require a n-square
         peering mesh to distribute labels to the remote LDP peers
         because the information is piggybacked through the local LDP
         peering.  However, implicit peering requires the intermediate
         nodes to store information that they might not be directly
         interested in.

         An example of the use of implicit peering is found in section
         3.3.








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2.20. LDP Transport

   LDP is used between nodes in an MPLS network to establish and
   maintain the label mappings. In order for LDP to operate correctly,
   LDP information needs to be transmitted reliably, and the LDP
   messages pertaining to a particular FEC need to be transmitted in
   sequence. This may potentially be accomplished either by using an
   existing reliable transport protocol such as TCP, or by specifying
   reliability mechanisms as part of LDP (for example, the reliability
   mechanisms which are defined in IDRP could potentially be "borrowed"
   for use with LSP). The precise means for accomplishing transport
   reliability with LSP are for further study, but will be specified by
   the MPLS Protocol Architecture before the architecture may be
   considered complete.


2.21. Label Encodings

   In order to transmit a label stack along with the packet whose label
   stack it is, it is necessary to define a concrete encoding of the
   label stack.  The architecture supports several different encoding
   techniques; the choice of encoding technique depends on the
   particular kind of device being used to forward labeled packets.


2.21.1. MPLS-specific Hardware and/or Software

   If one is using MPLS-specific hardware and/or software to forward
   labeled packets, the most obvious way to encode the label stack is to
   define a new protocol to be used as a "shim" between the data link
   layer and network layer headers.  This shim would really be just an
   encapsulation of the network layer packet; it would be "protocol-
   independent" such that it could be used to encapsulate any network
   layer.  Hence we will refer to it as the "generic MPLS
   encapsulation".

   The generic MPLS encapsulation would in turn be encapsulated in a
   data link layer protocol.

   The generic MPLS encapsulation should contain the following fields:

      1. the label stack,

      2. a Time-to-Live (TTL) field







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      3. a Class of Service (CoS) field

   The TTL field permits MPLS to provide a TTL function similar to what
   is provided by IP.

   The CoS field permits LSRs to apply various scheduling packet
   disciplines to labeled packets, without requiring separate labels for
   separate disciplines.

   This section is not intended to rule out the use of alternative
   mechanisms in network environments where such alternatives may be
   appropriate.


2.21.2. ATM Switches as LSRs

   It will be noted that MPLS forwarding procedures are similar to those
   of legacy "label swapping" switches such as ATM switches. ATM
   switches use the input port and the incoming VPI/VCI value as the
   index into a "cross-connect" table, from which they obtain an output
   port and an outgoing VPI/VCI value.  Therefore if one or more labels
   can be encoded directly into the fields which are accessed by these
   legacy switches, then the legacy switches can, with suitable software
   upgrades, be used as LSRs.  We will refer to such devices as "ATM-
   LSRs".

   There are three obvious ways to encode labels in the ATM cell header
   (presuming the use of AAL5):

      1. SVC Encoding

         Use the VPI/VCI field to encode the label which is at the top
         of the label stack.  This technique can be used in any network.
         With this encoding technique, each LSP is realized as an ATM
         SVC, and the LDP becomes the ATM "signaling" protocol.  With
         this encoding technique, the ATM-LSRs cannot perform "push" or
         "pop" operations on the label stack.

      2. SVP Encoding

         Use the VPI field to encode the label which is at the top of
         the label stack, and the VCI field to encode the second label
         on the stack, if one is present. This technique some advantages
         over the previous one, in that it permits the use of ATM "VP-
         switching".  That is, the LSPs are realized as ATM SVPs, with
         LDP serving as the ATM signaling protocol.

         However, this technique cannot always be used.  If the network



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         includes an ATM Virtual Path through a non-MPLS ATM network,
         then the VPI field is not necessarily available for use by
         MPLS.

         When this encoding technique is used, the ATM-LSR at the egress
         of the VP effectively does a "pop" operation.

      3. SVP Multipoint Encoding

         Use the VPI field to encode the label which is at the top of
         the label stack, use part of the VCI field to encode the second
         label on the stack, if one is present, and use the remainder of
         the VCI field to identify the LSP ingress.  If this technique
         is used, conventional ATM VP-switching capabilities can be used
         to provide multipoint-to-point VPs.  Cells from different
         packets will then carry different VCI values, so multipoint-
         to-point VPs can be provided without any cell interleaving
         problems.

         This technique depends on the existence of a capability for
         assigning small unique values to each ATM switch.

   If there are more labels on the stack than can be encoded in the ATM
   header, the ATM encodings must be combined with the generic
   encapsulation.  This does presuppose that it be possible to tell,
   when reassembling the ATM cells into packets, whether the generic
   encapsulation is also present.


2.21.3. Interoperability among Encoding Techniques

   If  is a segment of a LSP, it is possible that R1 will
   use one encoding of the label stack when transmitting packet P to R2,
   but R2 will use a different encoding when transmitting a packet P to
   R3.  In general, the MPLS architecture supports LSPs with different
   label stack encodings used on different hops.  Therefore, when we
   discuss the procedures for processing a labeled packet, we speak in
   abstract terms of operating on the packet's label stack. When a
   labeled packet is received, the LSR must decode it to determine the
   current value of the label stack, then must operate on the label
   stack to determine the new value of the stack, and then encode the
   new value appropriately before transmitting the labeled packet to its
   next hop.

   Unfortunately, ATM switches have no capability for translating from
   one encoding technique to another.  The MPLS architecture therefore
   requires that whenever it is possible for two ATM switches to be
   successive LSRs along a level m LSP for some packet, that those two



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   ATM switches use the same encoding technique.

   Naturally there will be MPLS networks which contain a combination of
   ATM switches operating as LSRs, and other LSRs which operate using an
   MPLS shim header. In such networks there may be some LSRs which have
   ATM interfaces as well as "MPLS Shim" interfaces. This is one example
   of an LSR with different label stack encodings on different hops.
   Such an LSR may swap off an ATM encoded label stack on an incoming
   interface and replace it with an MPLS shim header encoded label stack
   on the outgoing interface.


2.22. Multicast

   This section is for further study



3. Some Applications of MPLS

3.1. MPLS and Hop by Hop Routed Traffic

   One use of MPLS is to simplify the process of forwarding packets
   using hop by hop routing.


3.1.1. Labels for Address Prefixes

   In general, router R determines the next hop for packet P by finding
   the address prefix X in its routing table which is the longest match
   for P's destination address.  That is, the packets in a given Stream
   are just those packets which match a given address prefix in R's
   routing table. In this case, a Stream can be identified with an
   address prefix.

   If packet P must traverse a sequence of routers, and at each router
   in the sequence P matches the same address prefix, MPLS simplifies
   the forwarding process by enabling all routers but the first to avoid
   executing the best match algorithm; they need only look up the label.


3.1.2. Distributing Labels for Address Prefixes

3.1.2.1. LDP Peers for a Particular Address Prefix

   LSRs R1 and R2 are considered to be LDP Peers for address prefix X if
   and only if one of the following conditions holds:




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      1. R1's route to X is a route which it learned about via a
         particular instance of a particular IGP, and R2 is a neighbor
         of R1 in that instance of that IGP

      2. R1's route to X is a route which it learned about by some
         instance of routing algorithm A1, and that route is
         redistributed into an instance of routing algorithm A2, and R2
         is a neighbor of R1 in that instance of A2

      3. R1 is the receive endpoint of an LSP Tunnel that is within
         another LSP, and R2 is a transmit endpoint of that tunnel, and
         R1 and R2 are participants in a common instance of an IGP, and
         are in the same IGP area (if the IGP in question has areas),
         and R1's route to X was learned via that IGP instance, or is
         redistributed by R1 into that IGP instance

      4. R1's route to X is a route which it learned about via BGP, and
         R2 is a BGP peer of R1

   In general, these rules ensure that if the route to a particular
   address prefix is distributed via an IGP, the LDP peers for that
   address prefix are the IGP neighbors.  If the route to a particular
   address prefix is distributed via BGP, the LDP peers for that address
   prefix are the BGP peers.  In other cases of LSP tunneling, the
   tunnel endpoints are LDP peers.


3.1.2.2. Distributing Labels

   In order to use MPLS for the forwarding of normally routed traffic,
   each LSR MUST:

      1. bind one or more labels to each address prefix that appears in
         its routing table;

      2. for each such address prefix X, use an LDP to distribute the
         mapping of a label to X to each of its LDP Peers for X.

   There is also one circumstance in which an LSR must distribute a
   label mapping for an address prefix, even if it is not the LSR which
   bound that label to that address prefix:

      3. If R1 uses BGP to distribute a route to X, naming some other
         LSR R2 as the BGP Next Hop to X, and if R1 knows that R2 has
         assigned label L to X, then R1 must distribute the mapping
         between T and X to any BGP peer to which it distributes that
         route.




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   These rules ensure that labels corresponding to address prefixes
   which correspond to BGP routes are distributed to IGP neighbors if
   and only if the BGP routes are distributed into the IGP.  Otherwise,
   the labels bound to BGP routes are distributed only to the other BGP
   speakers.

   These rules are intended to indicate which label mappings must be
   distributed by a given LSR to which other LSRs, NOT to indicate the
   conditions under which the distribution is to be made.  That is
   discussed in section 2.17.


3.1.3. Using the Hop by Hop path as the LSP

   If the hop-by-hop path that packet P needs to follow is , then  can be an LSP as long as:

      1. there is a single address prefix X, such that, for all i,
         1<=idraft-ietf-mpls-arch-00.txt            August 1997


      2. R contains in its routing tables one or more address prefixes Y
         such that X is a proper initial substring of Y, but R's "LSP
         previous hops" for X do not contain any such address prefixes
         Y; that is, R2 is a "deaggregation point" for address prefix X.

   An LSR R1 is considered to be an "LSP Proxy Egress" LSR for address
   prefix X if and only if:

      1. R1's next hop for X is R2 R1 and R2 are not LDP Peers with
         respect to X (perhaps because R2 does not support MPLS), or

      2. R1 has been configured to act as an LSP Proxy Egress for X

   The definition of LSP allows for the LSP Egress to be a node which
   does not support MPLS; in this case the penultimate node in the LSP
   is the Proxy Egress.


3.1.5. The POP Label

   The POP label is a label with special semantics which an LSR can bind
   to an address prefix.  If LSR Ru, by consulting its ILM, sees that
   labeled packet P must be forwarded next to Rd, but that Rd has
   distributed a mapping of the POP label to the corresponding address
   prefix, then instead of replacing the value of the label on top of
   the label stack, Ru pops the label stack, and then forwards the
   resulting packet to Rd.

   LSR Rd distributes a mapping between the POP label and an address
   prefix X to LSR Ru if and only if:

      1. the rules of Section 3.1.2 indicate that Rd distributes to Ru a
         label mapping for X, and

      2. when the LDP connection between Ru and Rd was opened, Ru
         indicated that it could support the POP label, and

      3. Rd is an LSP Egress (not proxy egress) for X.

   This causes the penultimate LSR on a LSP to pop the label stack. This
   is quite appropriate; if the LSP Egress is an MPLS Egress for X, then
   if the penultimate LSR does not pop the label stack, the LSP Egress
   will need to look up the label, pop the label stack, and then look up
   the next label (or look up the L3 address, if no more labels are
   present).  By having the penultimate LSR pop the label stack, the LSP
   Egress is saved the work of having to look up two labels in order to
   make its forwarding decision.




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   However, if the penultimate LSR is an ATM switch, it may not have the
   capability to pop the label stack.  Hence a POP label mapping may be
   distributed only to LSRs which can support that function.

   If the penultimate LSR in an LSP for address prefix X is an LSP Proxy
   Egress, it acts just as if the LSP Egress had distributed the POP
   label for X.


3.1.6. Option: Egress-Targeted Label Assignment

   There are situations in which an LSP Ingress, Ri, knows that packets
   of several different Streams must all follow the same LSP,
   terminating at, say, LSP Egress Re.  In this case, proper routing can
   be achieved by using a single label can be used for all such Streams;
   it is not necessary to have a distinct label for each Stream.  If
   (and only if) the following conditions hold:

      1. the address of LSR Re is itself in the routing table as a "host
         route", and

      2. there is some way for Ri to determine that Re is the LSP egress
         for all packets in a particular set of Streams

   Then Ri may bind a single label to all FECS in the set.  This is
   known as "Egress-Targeted Label Assignment."

   How can LSR Ri determine that an LSR Re is the LSP Egress for all
   packets in a particular Stream?  There are a couple of possible ways:

     - If the network is running a link state routing algorithm, and all
       nodes in the area support MPLS, then the routing algorithm
       provides Ri with enough information to determine the routers
       through which packets in that Stream must leave the routing
       domain or area.

     - It is possible to use LDP to pass information about which address
       prefixes are "attached" to which egress LSRs.  This method has
       the advantage of not depending on the presence of link state
       routing.

   If egress-targeted label assignment is used, the number of labels
   that need to be supported throughout the network may be greatly
   reduced. This may be significant if one is using legacy switching
   hardware to do MPLS, and the switching hardware can support only a
   limited number of labels.

   One possible approach would be to configure the network to use



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   egress-targeted label assignment by default, but to configure
   particular LSRs to NOT use egress-targeted label assignment for one
   or more of the address prefixes for which it is an LSP egress.  We
   impose the following rule:

     - If a particular LSR is NOT an LSP Egress for some set of address
       prefixes, then it should assign labels to the address prefixes in
       the same way as is done by its LSP next hop for those address
       prefixes.  That is, suppose Rd is Ru's LSP next hop for address
       prefixes X1 and X2.  If Rd assigns the same label to X1 and X2,
       Ru should as well.  If Rd assigns different labels to X1 and X2,
       then Ru should as well.

   For example, suppose one wants to make egress-targeted label
   assignment the default, but to assign distinct labels to those
   address prefixes for which there are multiple possible LSP egresses
   (i.e., for those address prefixes which are multi-homed.)  One can
   configure all LSRs to use egress-targeted label assignment, and then
   configure a handful of LSRs to assign distinct labels to those
   address prefixes which are multi-homed.  For a particular multi-homed
   address prefix X, one would only need to configure this in LSRs which
   are either LSP Egresses or LSP Proxy Egresses for X.

   It is important to note that if Ru and Rd are adjacent LSRs in an LSP
   for X1 and X2, forwarding will still be done correctly if Ru assigns
   distinct labels to X1 and X2 while Rd assigns just one label to the
   both of them.  This just means that R1 will map different incoming
   labels to the same outgoing label, an ordinary occurrence.

   Similarly, if Rd assigns distinct labels to X1 and X2, but Ru assigns
   to them both the label corresponding to the address of their LSP
   Egress or Proxy Egress, forwarding will still be done correctly.  Ru
   will just map the incoming label to the label which Rd has assigned
   to the address of that LSP Egress.


3.2. MPLS and Explicitly Routed LSPs

   There are a number of reasons why it may be desirable to use explicit
   routing instead of hop by hop routing. For example, this allows
   routes to be based on administrative policies, and allows the routes
   that LSPs take to be carefully designed to allow traffic engineering
   (i.e., to allow intentional management of the loading of the
   bandwidth through the nodes and links in the network).







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3.2.1. Explicitly Routed LSP Tunnels: Traffic Engineering

   In some situations, the network administrators may desire to forward
   certain classes of traffic along certain pre-specified paths, where
   these paths differ from the Hop-by-hop path that the traffic would
   ordinarily follow. This is known as Traffic Engineering.

   MPLS allows this to be easily done by means of Explicitly Routed LSP
   Tunnels. All that is needed is:

      1. A means of selecting the packets that are to be sent into the
         Explicitly Routed LSP Tunnel;

      2. A means of setting up the Explicitly Routed LSP Tunnel;

      3. A means of ensuring that packets sent into the Tunnel will not
         loop from the receive endpoint back to the transmit endpoint.

   If the transmit endpoint of the tunnel wishes to put a labeled packet
   into the tunnel, it must first replace the label value at the top of
   the stack with a label value that was distributed to it by the
   tunnel's receive endpoint.  Then it must push on the label which
   corresponds to the tunnel itself, as distributed to it by the next
   hop along the tunnel.  To allow this, the tunnel endpoints should be
   explicit LDP peers. The label mappings they need to exchange are of
   no interest to the LSRs along the tunnel.


3.3. Label Stacks and Implicit Peering

   Suppose a particular LSR Re is an LSP proxy egress for 10 address
   prefixes, and it reaches each address prefix through a distinct
   interface.

   One could assign a single label to all 10 address prefixes.  Then Re
   is an LSP egress for all 10 address prefixes.  This ensures that
   packets for all 10 address prefixes get delivered to Re.  However, Re
   would then have to look up the network layer address of each such
   packet in order to choose the proper interface to send the packet on.

   Alternatively, one could assign a distinct label to each interface.
   Then Re is an LSP proxy egress for the 10 address prefixes.  This
   eliminates the need for Re to look up the network layer addresses in
   order to forward the packets.  However, it can result in the use of a
   large number of labels.

   An alternative would be to bind all 10 address prefixes to the same
   level 1 label (which is also bound to the address of the LSR itself),



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   and then to bind each address prefix to a distinct level 2 label. The
   level 2 label would be treated as an attribute of the level 1 label
   mapping, which we call the "Stack Attribute".  We impose the
   following rules:

     - When LSR Ru initially labels an untagged packet, if the longest
       match for the packet's destination address is X, and R's LSP next
       hop for X is Rd, and Rd has distributed to R1 a mapping of label
       L1 X, along with a stack attribute of L2, then

          1. Ru must push L2 and then L1 onto the packet's label stack,
             and then forward the packet to Rd;

          2. When Ru distributes label mappings for X to its LDP peers,
             it must include L2 as the stack attribute.

          3. Whenever the stack attribute changes (possibly as a result
             of a change in Ru's LSP next hop for X), Ru must distribute
             the new stack attribute.

   Note that although the label value bound to X may be different at
   each hop along the LSP, the stack attribute value is passed
   unchanged, and is set by the LSP proxy egress.

   Thus the LSP proxy egress for X becomes an "implicit peer" with each
   other LSR in the routing area or domain.  In this case, explicit
   peering would be too unwieldy, because the number of peers would
   become too large.


3.4. MPLS and Multi-Path Routing

   If an LSR supports multiple routes for a particular Stream, then it
   may assign multiple labels to the Stream, one for each route.  Thus
   the reception of a second label mapping from a particular neighbor
   for a particular address prefix should be taken as meaning that
   either label can be used to represent that address prefix.

   If multiple label mappings for a particular address prefix are
   specified, they may have distinct attributes.











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3.5. LSPs may be Multipoint-to-Point Entities

   Consider the case of packets P1 and P2, each of which has a
   destination address whose longest match, throughout a particular
   routing domain, is address prefix X.  Suppose that the Hop-by-hop
   path for P1 is , and the Hop-by-hop path for P2 is .  Let's suppose that R3 binds label L3 to X, and distributes
   this mapping to R2.  R2 binds label L2 to X, and distributes this
   mapping to both R1 and R4.  When R2 receives packet P1, its incoming
   label will be L2. R2 will overwrite L2 with L3, and send P1 to R3.
   When R2 receives packet P2, its incoming label will also be L2.  R2
   again overwrites L2 with L3, and send P2 on to R3.

   Note then that when P1 and P2 are traveling from R2 to R3, they carry
   the same label, and as far as MPLS is concerned, they cannot be
   distinguished.  Thus instead of talking about two distinct LSPs,  and , we might talk of a single "Multipoint-to-
   Point LSP", which we might denote as <{R1, R4}, R2, R3>.

   This creates a difficulty when we attempt to use conventional ATM
   switches as LSRs.  Since conventional ATM switches do not support
   multipoint-to-point connections, there must be procedures to ensure
   that each LSP is realized as a point-to-point VC.  However, if ATM
   switches which do support multipoint-to-point VCs are in use, then
   the LSPs can be most efficiently realized as multipoint-to-point VCs.
   Alternatively, if the SVP Multipoint Encoding (section 2.21) can be
   used, the LSPs can be realized as multipoint-to-point SVPs.


3.6. LSP Tunneling between BGP Border Routers

   Consider the case of an Autonomous System, A, which carries transit
   traffic between other Autonomous Systems. Autonomous System A will
   have a number of BGP Border Routers, and a mesh of BGP connections
   among them, over which BGP routes are distributed. In many such
   cases, it is desirable to avoid distributing the BGP routes to
   routers which are not BGP Border Routers.  If this can be avoided,
   the "route distribution load" on those routers is significantly
   reduced. However, there must be some means of ensuring that the
   transit traffic will be delivered from Border Router to Border Router
   by the interior routers.

   This can easily be done by means of LSP Tunnels. Suppose that BGP
   routes are distributed only to BGP Border Routers, and not to the
   interior routers that lie along the Hop-by-hop path from Border
   Router to Border Router. LSP Tunnels can then be used as follows:





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      1. Each BGP Border Router distributes, to every other BGP Border
         Router in the same Autonomous System, a label for each address
         prefix that it distributes to that router via BGP.

      2. The IGP for the Autonomous System maintains a host route for
         each BGP Border Router. Each interior router distributes its
         labels for these host routes to each of its IGP neighbors.

      3. Suppose that:

            a) BGP Border Router B1 receives an unlabeled packet P,

            b) address prefix X in B1's routing table is the longest
               match for the destination address of P,

            c) the route to X is a BGP route,

            d) the BGP Next Hop for X is B2,

            e) B2 has bound label L1 to X, and has distributed this
               mapping to B1,

            f) the IGP next hop for the address of B2 is I1,

            g) the address of B2 is in B1's and I1's IGP routing tables
               as a host route, and

            h) I1 has bound label L2 to the address of B2, and
               distributed this mapping to B1.

         Then before sending packet P to I1, B1 must create a label
         stack for P, then push on label L1, and then push on label L2.

      4. Suppose that BGP Border Router B1 receives a labeled Packet P,
         where the label on the top of the label stack corresponds to an
         address prefix, X, to which the route is a BGP route, and that
         conditions 3b, 3c, 3d, and 3e all hold. Then before sending
         packet P to I1, B1 must replace the label at the top of the
         label stack with L1, and then push on label L2.

   With these procedures, a given packet P follows a level 1 LSP all of
   whose members are BGP Border Routers, and between each pair of BGP
   Border Routers in the level 1 LSP, it follows a level 2 LSP.

   These procedures effectively create a Hop-by-Hop Routed LSP Tunnel
   between the BGP Border Routers.

   Since the BGP border routers are exchanging label mappings for



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   address prefixes that are not even known to the IGP routing, the BGP
   routers should become explicit LDP peers with each other.


3.7. Other Uses of Hop-by-Hop Routed LSP Tunnels

   The use of Hop-by-Hop Routed LSP Tunnels is not restricted to tunnels
   between BGP Next Hops. Any situation in which one might otherwise
   have used an encapsulation tunnel is one in which it is appropriate
   to use a Hop-by-Hop Routed LSP Tunnel. Instead of encapsulating the
   packet with a new header whose destination address is the address of
   the tunnel's receive endpoint, the label corresponding to the address
   prefix which is the longest match for the address of the tunnel's
   receive endpoint is pushed on the packet's label stack. The packet
   which is sent into the tunnel may or may not already be labeled.

   If the transmit endpoint of the tunnel wishes to put a labeled packet
   into the tunnel, it must first replace the label value at the top of
   the stack with a label value that was distributed to it by the
   tunnel's receive endpoint.  Then it must push on the label which
   corresponds to the tunnel itself, as distributed to it by the next
   hop along the tunnel.  To allow this, the tunnel endpoints should be
   explicit LDP peers. The label mappings they need to exchange are of
   no interest to the LSRs along the tunnel.


3.8. MPLS and Multicast

   Multicast routing proceeds by constructing multicast trees. The tree
   along which a particular multicast packet must get forwarded depends
   in general on the packet's source address and its destination
   address.  Whenever a particular LSR is a node in a particular
   multicast tree, it binds a label to that tree.  It then distributes
   that mapping to its parent on the multicast tree.  (If the node in
   question is on a LAN, and has siblings on that LAN, it must also
   distribute the mapping to its siblings.  This allows the parent to
   use a single label value when multicasting to all children on the
   LAN.)

   When a multicast labeled packet arrives, the NHLFE corresponding to
   the label indicates the set of output interfaces for that packet, as
   well as the outgoing label. If the same label encoding technique is
   used on all the outgoing interfaces, the very same packet can be sent
   to all the children.







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4. LDP Procedures

   This section is FFS.


5. Security Considerations

   Security considerations are not discussed in this version of this
   draft.


6. Authors' Addresses

      Eric C. Rosen
      Cisco Systems, Inc.
      250 Apollo Drive
      Chelmsford, MA, 01824
      E-mail: erosen@cisco.com

      Arun Viswanathan
      IBM Corp.
      17 Skyline Drive
      Hawthorne NY 10532
      914-784-3273
      E-mail: arunv@vnet.ibm.com

      Ross Callon
      Ascend Communications, Inc.
      1 Robbins Road
      Westford, MA 01886
      508-952-7412
      E-mail: rcallon@casc.com


7. References

   [1] "A Framework for Multiprotocol Label Switching", R.Callon,
   P.Doolan, N.Feldman, A.Fredette, G.Swallow, and A.Viswanathan, work
   in progress, Internet Draft <draft-ietf-mpls-framework-01.txt>, July
   1997.

   [2] "ARIS: Aggregate Route-Based IP Switching", A. Viswanathan, N.
   Feldman, R. Boivie, R. Woundy, work in progress, Internet Draft
   <draft-viswanathan-aris-overview-00.txt>, March 1997.

   [3] "ARIS Specification", N. Feldman, A. Viswanathan, work in
   progress, Internet Draft <draft-feldman-aris-spec-00.txt>, March
   1997.



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   [4] "ARIS Support for LAN Media Switching", S. Blake, A. Ghanwani, W.
   Pace, V. Srinivasan, work in progress, Internet Draft , March 1997.

   [5] "Tag Switching Architecture - Overview", Rekhter, Davie, Katz,
   Rosen, Swallow, Farinacci, work in progress, Internet Draft , January, 1997.

   [6] "Tag distribution Protocol", Doolan, Davie, Katz, Rekhter, Rosen,
   work in progress, Internet Draft <draft-doolan-tdp-spec-01.txt>, May,
   1997.

   [7] "Use of Tag Switching with ATM", Davie, Doolan, Lawrence,
   McGloghrie, Rekhter, Rosen, Swallow, work in progress, Internet Draft
   <draft-davie-tag-switching-atm-01.txt>, January, 1997.

   [8] "Label Switching: Label Stack Encodings", Rosen, Rekhter, Tappan,
   Farinacci, Fedorkow, Li, work in progress, Internet Draft , June, 1997.

   [9] "Partitioning Tag Space among Multicast Routers on a Common
   Subnet", Farinacci, work in progress, internet draft , December, 1996.

   [10] "Multicast Tag Binding and Distribution using PIM", Farinacci,
   Rekhter, work in progress, internet draft , December, 1996.

   [11] "Toshiba's Router Architecture Extensions for ATM: Overview",
   Katsube, Nagami, Esaki, RFC 2098, February, 1997.

   [12] "Loop-Free Routing Using Diffusing Computations", J.J. Garcia-
   Luna-Aceves, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, Vol. 1, No. 1,
   February 1993.


 Appendix A Why Egress Control is Better

   This section is written by Arun Viswanathan.

   It is demonstrated here why egress control is a necessary and
   sufficient mechanism for the LDP, and therefore is the optimal method
   for setting up LSPs.

   The necessary condition is established by citing counter examples
   that can be achieved *only* by egress control.  It's also established
   why these typical scenarios are vital requirements for a
   multiprotocol LDP.  The sufficiency part is established by proving



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   that egress control subsumes the local control.

   Then finally, some discussions are made to mitigate concerns
   expressed against not having local control.  It is shown that local
   control has clearly undesirable properties which may lead to severe
   scalability and robustness problems.  It is also shown that in having
   both egress control and local control simultaneously in a network
   leads to interoperability problems and how local control abrogates
   the essential benefits of egress control.

   A complete and self-contained case is presented here that clearly
   establishes that egress control is the preponderant mechanism for
   LDP, and it suffices to support egress control alone as the
   distribution paradigm.

   A.1 Definition of an Egress

   A node is identified as an "egress" for a Stream, if:

      1) it's at a routing boundary for that Stream,
      2) the next hop for that Stream is non-MPLS,
      3) the Stream is directly attached or the node itself.

   Nodes that satisfy conditions 1 or 2 for Streams, will by default
   start behaving as egress for those streams.  Note that conditions 1
   and 2 can be learned dynamically.  For condition 3, nodes will not by
   default act as an egress for themselves or directly attached
   networks.  If this condition is made the default, the LSPs setup by
   egress control will create LSPs that are identical to the LSPs
   created by local control.

   A.2 Overview of Egress Control

   When a node is an egress for a Stream, it originates a LSP setup
   message for that particular Stream.  The setup message is sent to all
   MPLS neighbors, except the next hop neighbor.  Each of these messages
   to the neighbors carry an appropriate label for that Stream.  When a
   node in a MPLS domain receives a setup message from a neighbor for a
   particular Stream, it checks if that neighbor is the next hop for the
   given Stream.  If so, it propagates the message to all its MPLS
   neighbors, except the next hop from which the message arrived.  If
   not, the node may keep the label provided in the setup message for
   future use or negatively acknowledge the node that sent the message
   to release the label assignment.  But it must not forward the setup
   message from the incorrect next hop to any of its neighbors.  This
   flooding scheme is similar in mechanism to Reverse Path Multicast.

   When a next hop for a Stream changes due to change in network



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   topology, or a new node joins the topology, the node is locally
   appended to the existing LSP, without requiring egress intervention.
   The node may either request the label mapping from the new next hop,
   or use the previously stored (but unused) label from that next hop.
   In the former case, the new next hop immediately responds with a
   label mapping for that Stream if it has its own downstream mapping
   for that Stream.

   A.3 Why Egress Control is Necessary

   There are some important situations in which egress control is
   necessary:

     - Shutting off an LSP

       If for some reason a network administrator requires to "shut off"
       a LSP setup for a particular Stream, s/he can configure the
       egress node for that Stream for the desired result.  Note that
       the requirement to shut off an LSP is a very fundamental one.  If
       a destination has network layer reachability but no MPLS layer
       reachability (because of a problem in MPLS layer), shutting off
       an LSP provides the only means to reach that destination.  This
       mode of operation can be used by LSRs in a network that aren't a
       sink for large amounts of data.  These LSRs usually require an
       occasional telnet or network management traffic.  It's important
       to provide the capability that such nodes in a network can be
       accessed through hop-by-hop connectivity avoiding the MPLS layer
       optimization.  The reachability is more important than
       optimization in instances like this.  The MPLS architecture MUST
       provide this capability.

       Note that this is only possible in local control when each node
       in an entire network is configured to shut off a LSP setup for a
       particular Stream.  Such is neither desirable nor scalable.

     - Egress Aggregation

       In some networks, due to the absence of routing summarization,
       aggregation may not be possible through routing information.
       However, with Egress control, it is possible to aggregate *all*
       Streams that exit the network through a common egress node with a
       single LSP.  This is achieved easily because the egress simply
       can use the same label for all Streams.

       Such is simply not possible with the Local control; with local
       knowledge LSRs cannot map several Streams to a single label
       because it is unknown if Streams will diverge at some subsequent
       downstream node.



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       The egress aggregation works for both distance vector protocols
       and link state protocols; it is protocol independent.  Note that
       when using VP switching in conjunction with some distance vector
       protocols it becomes very essential that such aggregation be
       possible, as there are many vendor switches that don't have VC
       merging capability, and have limited VP switching capability.
       The egress control provides such vendors with a level-playing
       field to compete with MPLS products. Moreover, this capability
       can be very useful in enterprise networks; where several legacy
       LANs at a site can be aggregated to the egress LSR at that site.
       Furthermore, this approach can drastically reduce signalling and
       LSP state maintenance overheads in the entire network.

     - Loop Prevention

       The loop-prevention mechanism only works from the egress node for
       multipoint-to-point LSPs, since the loop prevention mechanism
       requires the list of LSR nodes through which the setup message
       has already traversed in order to identify and prevent LSP loops.

       A loop prevention scheme is not possible through local control.

     - De-aggregation

       Egress control provides the capability to de-aggregate one or
       more Streams from an aggregated Stream.  For example, if a
       network is aggregating all CIDRs of an EBGP node into a single
       LSP, with egress control, a specific CIDR from this bundle can be
       given its own dedicated LSP.  This enables one to apply special
       policies to specific CIDRs when required.

       In the local control this can be achieved only by configuring
       every node in the network with specific de-aggregation
       information and the associated policy.  This approach can lead
       severe scalability problems.

     - Unique Labels

       As is known, when using VP merging, all ingresses must have
       unique VCI values to prevent cell interleaving.  With egress
       control, it is possible to distribute unique VCI values to the
       ingress nodes, avoiding the need to configure each ingress node.
       The egress node can pick a unique VCI for each ingress node.
       Another benefit of egress control is that each egress can be
       configured with a unique label value in the case of egress
       aggregation (as described above).  Since the label value is
       unique, the same label value can be used on all the segments of a
       LSP.  This enables one to identify anywhere in a network each LSP



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       that is associated with a certain egress node, thus easing
       network debugging.

       This again, is not possible in the local control because of the
       lack of a single coordinating node.

   A.4 Examples that work better through egress control

   Local control needs to propagate attributes that come from the
   downstream node to all upstream nodes.  This behavior itself can be
   LIKENED to the egress control.  Nevertheless, the local control can
   achieve these only in a severely inefficient manner.  Since each node
   only knows of local information, it creates and distributes an LSP
   with incorrect attributes.  As each node learns of new downstream
   attributes, a correction is made as the attributes are propagated
   upstream again.  This can lead to a worst case of O(n-squared) setup
   messages to create a single LSP, where n is the number of nodes in a
   LSP.

   In the egress control, the attribute distribution is achieved during
   initial LSP setup, with a single message from the egress to
   ingresses.

     - TTL/Traceroute

       The ingress requires a proper LSP hop-count value to decrement
       TTL in packets that use a particular LSP, in environments such as
       ATM which do not have a TTL equivalent.  This simulates the TTL
       decrement which exists in an IP network, and also enables scoping
       utilities, such as traceroute, to work as they do today in IP
       networks.  In egress control, the LSP hop-count is known at the
       ingress as a by-product of the LSP setup message, since an LSP
       setup message traverses from egress to ingress, and increments
       the hop-count at each node along the path.

     - MTU

       When the MTU at the egress node is smaller than the MTU at some
       of the ingress nodes, packets originated at those ingress nodes
       will be dropped when they reach the egress node.  Hosts not using
       MTU discovery have no means to recover from this.  However,
       similar to the hop-count, the minimum LSP MTU can be propagated
       to the ingresses via egress control LSP setup messages, enabling
       the ingress to do fragmentation when required.







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     - Implicit Peering

       Implicit peering is the mechanism through which higher level
       stack labels are communicated to the ingress nodes.  These label
       values are piggybacked in the LSP setup messages.  This works
       best with egress control; when the egress creates the setup
       message, it can piggyback the stack labels at the same time.

     - ToS/COS Based LSPs

       When certain LSPs require higher or lower precedence or priority
       through a network, the single egress node for that LSP can be
       configured with the required priority and this can be
       communicated in the egress control LSP setup message.  In the
       local control, each and every node in the network must be
       configured per LSP to achieve the same result.

   The local control initially distributes labels to its neighbors
   willy-nilly, and then waits for attributes to come through egress
   control.  Thus, local control is completely dependent on egress
   control to provide complete functional operation to LSPs. Otherwise,
   local control requires that attributes be configured through the
   entire network for each Stream.  This is the most compelling argument
   that local control is *not sufficient*; or conversely, egress control
   is necessary.  This demonstrates egress control subsumes the local
   control.  Moreover, distribution of labels without associated
   attributes may not be appropriate and may lead to undesired results.

   A.5 Egress Control is Sufficient

   The argument for sufficiency is proved by demonstrating that required
   LSPs can be created with egress control, and this is not the case
   with local control.

   The egress control can create an LSP for every route entry made by
   the routing protocols:

      1. A route can be learned from another routing domain, in which
         case the LSR at the routing domain will act as an egress for
         the route and originate an LSP setup for that route.

      2. A route can be a locally attached network or the LSR itself may
         be a host route.  In this case, the LSR to which such a route
         is attached originates an LSP setup message.







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      3. An LSR with a non-MPLS next-hop behaves as an egress for all
         those route whose next-hop is the non-MPLS neighbor.

   These three above methods can create an LSP for each route entry in a
   network.  Moreover, policy specific LSPs, as described previously,
   can *only* be achieved with egress control.  Thus, egress control is
   necessary and sufficient for creating LSPs. QED.

   A.6 Discussions

   A.6.1 Is Local control faster than Egress control?

   During topology changes, such as links going down, coming up, change
   in link cost, etc, there is no difference in setup latency between
   Egress Control and Local control.  This is due to the fact that the
   node (Ru) which undergoes a change in next-hop for a Stream
   immediately requests a label assignment from the new next hop node
   (Rd).  The new next hop node then immediately supplies the label
   mapping for the requested Stream.  As explained in the Egress Control
   Method section, the node Ru may already have stored label assignments
   from the node Rd, in which case node Ru can immediately splice itself
   to the multipoint-to-point tree.  Hence, new nodes are spliced into
   existing LSPs locally.  In the scenario where a network initially
   learns of a new route, although the Local control may setup LSPs
   faster than the Egress control, this difference in latency has no
   perceived advantage.  Since routing itself may take several seconds
   to propagate and converge on the new route information, the potential
   latency of egress control is small as compared to the routing
   protocol propagation time, and the initial setup time at route
   propagation time is unimportant since these are long lived LSPs.

   Moreover, the hurried distribution of labels in local control may not
   carry much meaning because:

      4. The associated attributes are not applied or propagated to the
         ingress.

      5. While the ingress may believe it has an LSP, in reality the
         packets may be blackholed in the middle of the network if the
         full LSP is not established.

      6. Policy based LSPs, which can only be achieved via egress
         control as described above, may undo an un-used label
         assignment established by local control.

   A.6.2 Scalability and Robustness

   It has been alleged that the egress control does not have the



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   scalability and robustness properties required by distributed
   processing.  However, the egress uses a root distribution paradigm
   commonly used by many other standard routing protocols.  For example,
   in the case of OSPF, LSAs are flooded through a domain originating at
   the "egress", where the difference being that the flooding in the
   case of OSPF is contained through a sequence number and in the Egress
   control it is contained by the next hop validation.  In the case of
   PIM (and some other multicast protocols), the distribution mechanism
   is in fact exactly similar.  Even in BGP with route reflection,
   updates originate at the root and traverse a tree structure to reach
   the peers, as opposed to a n-square mesh.  The commonality is the
   distribution paradigm, in which the distribution originates at the
   root of a tree and traverses the branches till it reaches all the
   leaves.  None of the above mentioned protocols have scalability or
   robustness problems because of the distribution paradigm.

   The ONLY concern expressed against to counter Egress control is that
   if the setup message does not propagate upstream from a certain node,
   then the sub-tree upstream of that node will not be added into the
   LSP.  It's a reasonable concern, but further analysis shows that it's
   not a realistic problem.  The impact of this problem compared to the
   impact of a similar problem in local control are exactly the same
   when LSRs employed in a MPLS domain have little or no forwarding
   capabilities (for example, ATM LSRs), since in both cases, packets
   are blackholed.  In fact, in the egress control the packets for
   afflicted LSPs will be dropped right at the ingress, while with local
   control the packets will be dropped at the point of breakage, causing
   packets to unnecessarily traverse part way through the network.  When
   reasonable forwarding capability exists in the MPLS domain, with the
   egress control the packets may be forwarded hop-by-hop till the point
   where the LSP setup ended.  Whereas in case of local control, the
   packets will label switched till the point of breakage and hop-by-hop
   forwarded till the LSP segment resumes.  Since egress control has
   advantages when there is no forwarding capability, and local control
   is has advantages when there is forwarding capability, there is an
   equal tradeoff between them, and thus, neither is superior or
   inferior in this regard.  This latter case is simply a loss in
   optimization, since the network has reasonable forwarding
   capabilities.  Hence the robustness issue is not a problem in either
   types of networks.  As mentioned before, the local control is
   dependent on egress control for distributing attributes.  The
   attribute distribution could then also face the same problem of
   stalled propagation, which would lead to erroneous LSP setup.  So,
   the local control can also be seen as afflicted with this problem, if
   it exists.

   Moreover, if stalled propagation were truly a problem, there are
   other schemes in MPLS that would face the same issue.  For example,



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   the label distribution through PIM, Explicit Route setup, and RSVP
   would also not work, and therefore should be withdrawn :-).

   Note that exhaustion of label space cannot stall the propagation of
   messages to the upstream nodes.  Appropriate indications can be given
   to the upstream nodes in the setup message that no label allocation
   was made because of exhaustion of label space, so that correct action
   can be taken at the upstream nodes, and yet the LSP setup would
   continue.

   A.6.3 Conclusion

   The attempt here is not to deride the local control, but since one
   method subsumes the features and properties of the other, then why
   support both and complicate implementation, interoperability and
   maintenance?  In fact RFC1925 says, "In protocol design, perfection
   has been reached not when there is nothing left to add, but when
   there is nothing left to take away".  A usual diplomatic resolution
   for such controversy is to make accommodations for both.  We feel
   that it's a poor choice of architecture to support both.  That is why
   we feel strongly that this must be evaluated by the MPLS WG.

   In a way, controlling the network behavior as to which LSP are
   formed, which Streams map to which LSPs, and the associated
   attributes, can be compared to applying policies at the edges of an
   AS.  This is precisely what the egress control provides, a rich and
   varied policy control at the egress node of LSPs.


 Appendix B Why Local Control is Better

   This section is written by Eric Rosen.

   The remaining area of dispute between advocates of "local control"
   and advocates of "egress control" is relatively small.  In
   particular, there is agreement on the following points:

      1. If LSR R1's next hop for address prefix X is LSR R2, and R2 is
         in a different area or in a different routing domain than R1,
         then R1 may assign and distribute a label for X, even if R2 has
         not done so.

         This means that even under egress control, the border routers
         in one autonomous system do not have to wait, before
         distributing labels, for any downstream routers which are in
         other autonomous systems.





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      2. If LSR R1's next hop for address prefix X is LSR R2, but R1
         receives a label mapping for X from LSR R3, then R1 may
         remember R3's mapping.  If, at some later time, R3 becomes R1's
         next hop for S, then (if R1 is not using loop prevention) R1
         may immediately begin using R3 as the LSP next hop for S, using
         the remembered mapping from R3.

      3. Attributes which are passed upstream from the egress may change
         over time, as a result of reconfiguration of the egress, or of
         other events.  This means that even if egress control is used,
         LSRs must be able to accept attribute changes on existing LSPs;
         attributes are not fixed when the LSP is first constructed, nor
         does a change in attributes require a new LSP to be
         constructed.

   The dispute is centered on the situation in which the following
   conditions hold:

     - LSR R1's next hop for address prefix X is within the same
       administrative domain as R1, and

     - R1's next hop for X has not distributed to R1 a label for X, and

     - R1 has not yet distributed to its neighbors any labels for X.

   With local control, R1 is permitted to distribute a label for X to
   its neighbors; with egress control it is not.

   From an implementation perspective, the difference then between
   egress control and local control is relatively small.  Egress control
   simply creates an additional state in the label distribution process,
   and prohibits label distribution in that state.

   From the perspective of network behavior, however, this difference is
   a bit more significant:

     - Egress control adds latency to the initial construction of an
       LSP, because the path must be set up serially, node by node from
       the egress.  With local control, all LSRs along the path may
       perform their setup activities in parallel.

     - Egress control adds additional interdependencies among nodes, as
       there is something that one node cannot do until some other node
       does something else first, which it cannot do until some other
       node does something first, etc. This is problematical for a
       number of reasons.





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         * In robust system design, one tries to avoid such
           interdependencies, since they always bring along robustness
           and scalability problems.

         * In some situations, it is advantageous for a node to use
           MPLS, even if some node downstream is not functioning
           properly and hence not assigning labels as it should.

   These disadvantages might be tolerable if there is some significant
   problem which can be solved by egress control, but not by local
   control.  So it is worth looking to see if there is such a problem.

   There are a number of situations in which it may be desirable for an
   LSP Ingress node to know certain attributes of the LSP, e.g., the
   number of hops in the LSP.  It is sometimes claimed that obtaining
   such information requires the use of egress control.  However, this
   is not true.  Any attribute of an LSP is liable to change after the
   LSP exists.  Procedures to detect and communicate the change must
   exist.  These procedures CANNOT be tied to the initial construction
   of the LSP, since they must execute after the LSP has already been
   constructed.  The ability to pass control information upstream along
   a path towards an ingress node does not presuppose anything about the
   procedures used to construct the path.

   The fundamental issue separating the advocates of egress control from
   the advocates of local control is really a network management issue.
   To advocates of egress control, setting up an LSP for a particular
   address prefix is analogous to setting up a PVC in an ATM network.
   When setting up a PVC, one goes to one of the PVC endpoints and
   enters certain configuration information.  Similarly, one might think
   that to set up an LSP for a particular address prefix, one goes to
   the LSR which is the egress for that address prefix, and enters
   configuration information.  This allows the network administrator
   complete control of which address prefixes are assigned LSPs and
   which are not. And if this is one's management model, egress control
   does simplify the configuration issues.

   On the other hand, if one's model is that the LSPs get set up
   automatically by the network, as a result of the operation of the
   routing algorithm, then egress control is of no utility at all.  When
   one hears the claim that "egress control allow you to control your
   network from a few nodes", what is really being claimed is "egress
   control simplifies the job of manually configuring all the LSPs in
   your network".  Of course, if you don't intend to manually configure
   all the LSPs in your network, this is irrelevant.

   So before an egress control scheme is adopted, one should ask whether
   complete manual configuration of the set of address prefixes which



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   get assigned LSPs is necessary.  That is, is this capability needed
   to solve a real problem?

   It is sometimes claimed that egress control is needed if one wants to
   conserve labels by assigning a single label to all address prefixes
   which have the same egress.  This is not true.  If the network is
   running a link state routing algorithm, each LSR already knows which
   address prefixes have a common egress, and hence can assign a common
   label.  If the network is running a distance vector routing protocol,
   information about which address prefixes have a common egress can be
   made to "bubble up" from the egress, using LDP, even if local control
   is used.

   It is only in the case where the number of available labels is so
   small that their use must be manually administered that egress
   control has an advantage.  It may be arguable that egress control
   should be an option that can be used for the special cases in which
   it provides value.  In most cases, there is no reason to have it at
   all.
































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