Technical Whitepaper for SMART-MPLS

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

Technical White Paper for SMART-MPLS

Table of Contents
1 Foreword ........................................................................................................................................ 1 2 Technical Introduction.................................................................................................................. 2 3 Key Technologies.......................................................................................................................... 3 3.1 Accessing VPLS Through a Static VLL ................................................................................ 3 3.2 Protection Switching ............................................................................................................. 3 3.3 Comparison between SMART-MPLS and MPLS Technologies in Access Networks .......... 4 4 Typical Applications ..................................................................................................................... 6 4.1 Metropolitan Area Access Network....................................................................................... 6 5 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 6 Appendix A Abbreviations............................................................................................................ 7

Copyright 2007 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

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Technical White Paper for SMART-MPLS

Technical Whitepaper for SMART-MPLS

Abstract: SMART-MPLS is a technical plan based on the combination of static virtual leased line (VLL) and dynamic virtual private LAN segment (VPLS). It enables the access of static VLL to dynamic VPLS through the connection of VLL and VPLS structures. This document introduces the background and principle of SMART-MPLS, and concludes the advantages in building access layer network. Keywords: VLL, VPLS, SMART-MPLS, MPLS OAM

1 Foreword
With the evolving of IP telecom networks, synchronous digital hierarchy or synchronous optical network (SDH/SONET) is no longer the best and cost effective choice for emerging IP-based services, such as IPTV and triple play. The direct drive for carriers to migration is applications and cost. Due to the broad bandwidth and low cost of Ethernet, the Ethernet technology is adopted by more and more carriers in building access networks, metropolitan area networks (MANs), or even wide area networks (WANs). Carrier Ethernet is widely accepted in access networks or MANs because of its performance in packet switch (PS) protection, operation and maintenance (OAM), and virtual private network (VPN). Solutions to these items decide the network migration. Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a mature label tunneling technology. In the building of carrier Ethernet, it can overcome connectionless Ethernet data. MPLS based L3 and L2 VPNs provide VPN services for different network layers. In an L3 VPN, operator networks must intervene in carriers routing hierarchy. This requires access equipment in operator networks to be more complex and stable. L3 VPN must be deployed in access networks or MANs based on related services. An L2 VPN can provide link layer virtual based connection through an MPLS network. Operator networks transmit subscriber data transparently. Thus, L2 VPNs are common to different access networks or MANs. An L2 VPN can be built through a VPLS or a VLL. A VPLS supports multipoint to multipoint (MP2MP) while a VLL supports point to point (P2P). Through hierarchical connection, an H-VPLS (hierarchical VPLS) can effectively reduce the PWs set up between PEs and the replication and forwarding of packets in backbone networks. The H-VPLS includes the core PW (Hub) and the access PW (Spoke). An H-VPLS provides two access modes: label switched path (LSP) and QinQ. In an LSP, MPLS labels are used as multiplexing labels between a UPE and an NPE. A UPE sets up a

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Technical White Paper for SMART-MPLS

virtual connection only with an NPE in the upper layer to access the U-PW. In QinQ, VLAN tags are used as multiplexing tags between a UPE and an NPE. In a hierarchical network, a single connection between a UPE and an NPE may affect all VPN services on the UPE, if failed. Dual-homed backup is usually used to avoid failures that may be brought by single connection or single NPE. QinQ, however, lacks of switchover protection mechanism, so link backup does not work for carrier switchover within 50ms. Similarly, if LDP dynamic signaling is used to monitor PW between UPEs and NPEs, the LSP mode cannot meet this requirement.

2 Technical Introduction
The SMART-MPLS technology is shown as follows:

The working flow of the SMART-MPLS technology is as follows: 1) The SMART-MPLS deploys a static VLL between a UPE and an NPE to set up a P2P virtual connection. 2) 3) 4) The SMART-MPLS connects the static VLL to the upper VPLS network on the NPE. The UPE forwards P2P the packet received from the CE to the NPE as in an L2 VPN. On receiving the packet, the NPE ends the PW of the VLL, and forwards the packet as in a VPLS network. To guarantee service reliability, SMART-MPLS provides these efficient mechanisms: Static configuration of label tunnels and PW virtual connection between UPEs and NPEs Avoiding unstable connection between UPEs and NPEs caused by dynamic protocols Avoiding unstable protocols of VPLS between NPEs caused by unstable PW between UPEs and NPEs
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Technical White Paper for SMART-MPLS

Static VLL based protection mechanism between the UPE and two dual-homed upstream NPEs Example: setting up an MPLS tunnel protection group and carrying out MPLS OAM In this way, an end to end (E2E) protection switchover is established between UPEs and NPEs.

3 Key Technologies
3.1 Accessing VPLS Through a Static VLL
For UPE, the static VLL and dynamic VLL are the same in forwarding. While deploying H-VPLS on the NPE, for the static VLL access, you need to specify the UPE and configure the static PW label that matches the UPE, including static PW I/O label. With the configuration above, packets from subscribers at the CE side are forwarded to NPE through VLL forwarding. Upon receiving a packet, the NPE terminates the local VLL. Then the NPE finds the VPLS service instance according to the PW, and forwards the packet according to the destination MAC address. After receiving packets from the network side, the NPE will strip the PW label off the VPLS through standard procedures. Then it will follow the procedure for local static VLL forwarding according to the destination MAC address indicated in the packet. That is, push the PW label and external tunnel label and forward them to the UPE. After receiving the packet, the UPE pushes out the tunnel label and VLL PW label through VLL forwarding, and forwards them to the related CE. In the SMART-MPLS solution, the PW label and VLL label tunnel are manually and statically specified. Therefore, when deploying devices on the access network and MAN edge, this solution has advantages over those based on dynamic protocol networking. SMART-MPLS features simple network deployment, stable network topology, high service stability, and predictable service forwarding. Moreover, the solution provides ideal OAM.

3.2 Protection Switching

The SMART-MPLS solution supports fast convergence across the network. Specifically, it supports failover between UPE and NPE and fast advertising of static VLL failures between the NPEs. In SMART-MPLS-based deployment, both the tunnel and VLL between UPE and NPE are statically configured without dynamic protocol negotiation. So, for reliability, the VLL relies solely on the UPE-NPE tunnel link. To guarantee the reliability of tunnel link and upper NPE node, the SMART-MPLS solution uses the combination of tunnel protection and NPE dual homing. A tunnel protection group
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Technical White Paper for SMART-MPLS

based on static LSP is deployed on the UPE. In this group, the terminal nodes on the active and standby tunnels are not located in the same place but their packets reach two upper NPEs. The two NPEs create their own backward static LSP tunnels. In this solution, MPLS OAM monitoring instances based on the protection group are deployed between the UPE and the two NPEs. You can simply bind the active and standby tunnels on the UPE. The NPEs are invisible to the protection group. As the VPLS on NPE provides access to static VLLs, the state of VPLS PW will never change. This helps prevent network-wide VPLS state changes caused by the changing VLL at the access side. Such instability is often found in the existing technology. Then how can the VPLS tell if a static VLL is connected? In the SMART-MPLS solution, the connectivity of the tunnel carried over the static VLL is associated with the VPLS. That is, the result of MPLS OAM monitoring is associated with the VPLS. Once the MPLS OAM at the NPE side has detected any failure, the associated VPLS service instance will send the mac-withdraw over LDP to notify the networked neighbors to remove the MAC address forwarding table from related service instances. See the networking below:

UPE1 and NPE1, and UPE3 and NPE3 are connected to VPLS over static VLL. A remote VLL virtual link is established between UPE1 and UPE3. On UPE1, a protection group is created for active and standby static LSP tunnels. The active tunnel terminates at NPE1, and the standby tunnel at NPE2. Once the MPLS OAM detects a active tunnel failure between UPE1 and NPE1, the UPE1 will perform tunnel protection switching within 50ms. So UPE1 can switch the existing data traffic over to the backup tunnel in the protection group, and send the traffic to NPE2. Meanwhile, based on the failure detected by MPLS OAM, the NPE1 triggers the related VPLS instance, notifying the remote VPLS to remove the existing MAC forwarding entry. In this way, the backward data traffic will be forwarded to the new MAC address.

3.3 Comparison between SMART-MPLS and MPLS Technologies in Access Networks

For extended access to VPN edge, the VPN solution usually applies the internetworking technologies used between upper PE devices to the internetworking between UPE and NPE.
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Technical White Paper for SMART-MPLS

These technologies include dynamic routing protocol, dynamic label tunnel and dynamic protocol creation over PW. Though flexible and adaptive in neighbor discovery and path establishment, dynamic protocol results in many side effects. For example, network services are less reliable; network topology is even more uncertain.

The figure above shows a Full Dynamic to Edge networking model. An LSP tunnel over LDP is established between UPE and NPE. The PW virtual connection between UPE and NPE is also created over dynamic protocol. But this results in the following problems to the access layer: 1) Edge access devices are more heavily burdened but less reliable. These devices have to taken on unwanted protocol calculation because of automatic protocol discovery and dynamic convergence. In addition, complex software implementation also makes these access devices less reliable. 2) The topology for networking traffic is hard to predict. As the tunnel between UPE and NPE is established dynamically, if the working tunnel fails, it is hard to predict which tunnel will take over the traffic. 3) Complex network protection: It is difficult to provide protection for LSP tunnel and PW virtual connection over a dynamic protocol. For example, such production mechanism can be FRR mechanism and PW backup. More or less effective though, such protection results in heavier configurations. In the SMART-MPLS solution, the combination of static edge and dynamic core can ideally resolve these problems. The tunnel and PW connections on the edge access device are statically configured, so the solution is simple but reliable. We can easily deploy services on the access network by using graphical tunnels and NMS configuration for PW connection. With the MPLS OAM monitoring mechanism, we can also discover and locate faults with label tunnels on the access network. With upper dual homed NPE and monitoring interaction, this solution can guarantee fast E2E fault convergence across the entire network. As the working tunnel and backup tunnel are preset, the network administrator can quickly locate faults by using a wide variety of location technologies that come with MPLS OAM. This makes it far easier for network operation and maintenance.

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Technical White Paper for SMART-MPLS

4 Typical Applications
4.1 Metropolitan Area Access Network

The figure above shows a typical application in MAN access network based on SMART-MPLS technology. As a typical hierarchical VPN networking model, UPE is an access network edge device using static VLL to access different types of service, such as private VIP service, PPPoE network service for family and medium- and small-sized companies, IPTV and NGN. This model uses the active and standby tunnels of static LSP label between UPE and NPE. Besides, it uses the hierarchical VPLS on NPE for access of static VLL to dynamic VPLS. Thus, it provides point-to-point model for each type of service between UPE and NPE and guaranteed service reliability. Moreover, the multipoint-to-multipoint service model on the core network through dynamic VPLS ensures service flexibility.

5 Conclusion
The SMART-MPLS solution combines static VLL access, static tunnel protection and upper dual homing technologies. This solution has advantages over the existing hierarchical VPN in access network building, especially in service reliability, service failure convergence, network scalability, OAM and equipment cost.

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Technical White Paper for SMART-MPLS

Appendix A References

ITU-T Recommendation Y.1710(2002), "Requirements for OAM Functionality for MPLS Networks". ITU-T Recommendation Y.1711(2004), "Operation & Maintenance mechanism for MPLS networks". ITU-T Recommendation Y.1720(2003), "Protection switching for MPLS networks".

Appendix B Abbreviations
VLL VPLS H-VPLS UPE SPE/NPE VSI PW CE LSP MPLS OAM

Virtual Leased Line Virtual Private LAN Service

Hierarchical VPLS

User facing-Provider Edge Super/Network Provider Edge Virtual Switch Instance Pseudo Wire Custom Edge
Label Switching Path MPLS OperationAdministration and Maintenance

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