DAY 1

1 Course Introduction

2 MPLS—Introduction
• Describe the BGP remote next-hop mechanic, and hopby-hop forwarding
• Explain the original historical motivations for MPLS
• List the alternative modern use cases for MPLS

3 MPLS—The Mechanics
• Explain how labels are built, and how they flow between routers
• Describe the end-to-end data plane of a packet across a label-switched path
• Summarize the four primary protocols that can build label-switched paths

4 MPLS—Static LSPs, and the Forwarding Plane
• Configure a service provider’s edge and core devices for MPLS
• Configure the headend router of an LSP and explain the impact this has on the router's inet.3 table
• Configure transit routers and verify their mpls.0 tables
Lab 1: Static LSPs, and the Forwarding Plane

5 RSVP—Introduction
• Explain the purpose, features, and advantages of RSVP
• Configure a service provider network to be ready to host
RSVP label-switched paths

6 RSVP—Configuring A Basic LSP
• Configure and verify an RSVP label-switched path that follows the metrically best path
• Explain the purpose of MPLS self-ping
• Explain how an RSVP LSP is signaled and created

7 RSVP—The Traffic Engineering Database
• Describe the purpose of the IS-IS/OSPF traffic engineering extensions
• Configure and verify an LSP that uses the traffic engineering database to calculate its path
• Explain the impact that loose and strict hops can have on an LSP
Lab 2: RSVP LSPs

DAY 2

8 RSVP—LSP Bandwidth Reservation
• Describe the use-cases for RSVP bandwidth reservations
• Configure LSP bandwidth reservations, and verify how these reservations are advertised

9 RSVP—LSP Priorities
• Describe the problems that can be caused by RSVP LSP bandwidth reservations, and the solution offered by priority levels
• Describe the default RSVP LSP priority levels, how to configure alternative settings, and how to configure LSP soft-preemption to avoid downtime
Lab 3: RSVP—LSP Bandwidth and Priorities

10 RSVP—Constrained Shortest Path First, and Admin Groups
• Describe the CSPF algorithm, along with its tie breakers
• Configure and verify admin groups on LSPs

11 RSVP—LSP Failures, Errors, and Session Maintenance
• Describe the events that can tear down an LSP, and the RSVP messages that make it happen
• Describe how RSVP has changed over the years from a soft-state protocol to a reliable stateful protocol

12 RSVP—Primary and Secondary Paths
• Explain the use-cases and configuration for primary and secondary paths
• Identify the benefits and trade-offs of standby secondary paths
• Show the advantage of pre-installing backup paths to the forwarding table
Lab 4: RSVP—Primary and Secondary Paths

13 RSVP—Local Repair, Part 1—One-to-One Backup, or Fast-Reroute
• Demonstrate the downtime that can be caused by a link or node failure in an MPLS network, and how a local repair path can significantly reduce this downtime
• Explain the mechanics of the one-to-one backup method
• Explain the many different meanings of the term “fast reroute”
• Configure and verify the one-to-one backup method of local repair

14 RSVP—Local Repair Part 2—Facility Backup, or NodeLink-Protection
• Describe how facility backup creates local repair paths for link protection and for node protection
• Configure and verify the facility backup method
• Describe the advantages and trade-offs of the facility backup and one-to-one backup methods
Lab 5: One-to-One Backup and Facility Backup

DAY 3
15 RSVP—LSP Optimization
• Describe the LSP optimization algorithm, and how to configure this feature

16 RSVP—Make-Before-Break and Adaptive
• Describe the make-before-break mechanic, and list the features that use this mechanic by default
• Explain how shared explicit signaling can prevent double counting of bandwidth, and configure this feature for all other LSPs
• Configure a policy to map specific traffic to a particular RSVP LSP

17 LDP—The Label Distribution Protocol
• Describe the key features, advantages, and trade-offs of LDP
• Explain the particular methods by which LDP generates and advertises MPLS labels

18 LDP—Configuration
• Configure a basic LDP deployment, and describe the protocol messages that this configuration generates
• Verify the interface messages, sessions, and labels that this configuration generates

19 LDP—Enhancements and Best Practices
• Explain the LDP-IGP Synchronization feature that reduces dropped packets during topology changes
• Describe how the BGP next-hop resolution process can be altered in LDP
• Configure session protection to improve the integrity of LDP during network failure

20 LDP—Egress, Import, and Export Policies
• Configure and verify LDP egress policies to advertise any FEC of your choosing
• Configure and verify LDP import and export policies to limit the distribution of FECs
Lab 6: Label Distribution Protocol