QOS & MPLS

In some cases (for example, a plain non-VPN MPLS network), the PHP action on the final P router can expose a plain IP packet when a packet with only one label is received. When this IP packet is received by the egress LSR (PE), it is not possible to classify the packet based on the MPLS EXP bits because there is no label now. In these situations, you must configure the egress PE router to advertise an explicit-null label. When the PHP action is performed on the P router, a label with a value of zero is sent, and with this special label you can mark the EXP bits as normally labeled packets, allowing the correct classification on the egress PE router.

Default Behavior: Penultimate Hop Pop (PHP)

R8#show mpls for 5.5.5.5 32
 Local  Outgoing    Prefix            Bytes tag  Outgoing   Next Hop
 tag    tag or VC   or Tunnel Id      switched   interface
 16     Untagged    5.5.5.5/32        0          Se0/0/0.57 point2point

Behavior with Ultimate Hop Popping (UHP)

R9(config)#mpls ldp explicit-null !this is how you enable UHP

R9#show mpls for 5.5.5.5 32
Local  Outgoing    Prefix            Bytes tag  Outgoing   Next Hop
tag    tag or VC   or Tunnel Id      switched   interface
16     0          5.5.5.5/32        0          Se0/0/0.57 point2point

UHP: in other words: explicit-null, instead of advertising a pop we send a label (0, for both LDP/TDP)

DiffServ Tunneling Modes for MPLS Networks
RFC3270

MPLS LDP Session Protection

when a link flap or just fail it can take a long time for ldp to reexchange lable , with MPLS LDP  session  from an outage,protection ,we can provide fastr ldp convergence when a link recovers:

MPLS LDP Session Protection maintains LDP bindings when a link fails.

MPLS LDP sessions are protected through the use of LDP Hello messages. When you enable MPLS LDP,

the label switched routers (LSRs) send messages to find other LSRs with which they can create LDP sessions.

•If the LSR is one hop from its neighbor, it is directly connected to its neighbor.

The LSR sends out LDP Hello messages as User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets to all the routers on the subnet.

The hello message is called an LDP Link Hello. A neighboring LSR responds to the hello message and the two routers begin to establish an LDP session.

•If the LSR is more than one hop from its neighbor, it is not directly connected to its neighbor.

The LSR sends out a directed hello message as a UDP packet, but as a unicast message specifically addressed to that LSR.

The hello message is called an LDP Targeted Hello. The nondirectly connected LSR responds to the Hello message and the two routers establish an LDP session. (If the path between two LSRs has been traffic engineered and has LDP enabled, the LDP session between them is called a targeted session.)

MPLS LDP Session Protection uses LDP Targeted Hellos to protect LDP sessions.

Take, for example, two directly connected routers that have LDP enabled and can reach each other through alternate IP routes in the network. An LDP session that exists between two routers is called an LDP Link Hello Adjacency. When MPLS LDP Session Protection is enabled, an LDP Targeted Hello Adjacency is also established for the LDP session.

If the link between the two routers fails, the LDP Link Adjacency also fails. However, if the LDP peer is still reachable through IP, the LDP session stays up, because the LDP Targeted Hello Adjacency still exists between the routers. When the directly connected link recovers, he session does not need to be reestablished,

and LDP bindings for prefixes do not need to be relearned

command: mpls ldp session protection [vrf vpn-name] [for acl] [duration seconds]

MPLS Fundamentals Book by Luc de Ghen CCIE 1897

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/12_0s/feature/guide/fssespro.html