© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. MPLS v MPLS VPN Implementation Using MPLS VPN Mechanisms of Cisco IOS Platforms

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. MPLS v Outline Overview What Is a VRF Table? What Is the Need for Routing Protocol Contexts? What Are VPN-Aware Routing Protocols? How Are VRF Tables Used? Propagating BGP RoutesOutbound Propagating RoutesInbound Propagating Non-BGP RoutesOutbound Propagating Non-BGO RoutesInbound Summary

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. MPLS v VRF Table A VRF is the routing and forwarding instance for a set of sites with identical connectivity requirements. Data structures associated with a VRF are as follows: –IP routing table –CEF table –Set of rules and routing protocol parameters (routing protocol contexts) –List of interfaces that use the VRF Other information associated with a VRF is as follows: –Route distinguisher –Set of import and export route targets

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. MPLS v Need for Routing Protocol Contexts There are two backbones with overlapping addresses. RIP is running in both VPNs. RIP in VPN A has to be different from RIP in VPN B. Cisco IOS software supports only one RIP process per router.

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. MPLS v VPN-Aware Routing Protocols Routing context = routing protocol run in one VRF: Supported by VPN-aware routing protocols: –External BGP (EBGP), EIGRP, OSPF, RIP version 2 (RIPv2), IS-IS, static routes Implemented as several instances of a single routing process (EIGRP, EBGP, RIPv2, IS-IS) or as several routing processes (OSPF) Independent per-instance router variables for each instance

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. MPLS v VRF Table Contains routes that should be available to a particular set of sites Analogous to standard Cisco IOS software routing table; supports same set of mechanisms VPN interfaces (physical interface, subinterfaces, logical interfaces) assigned to VRFs: –Many interfaces per VRF –Each interface assignable to only one VRF

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. MPLS v Two VPNs are attached to the same PE router. Each VPN is represented by a VRF. BGP Route PropagationOutbound

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. MPLS v BGP-speaking CE routers announce their prefixes to the PE router via BGP. The instance of BGP process associated with the VRF of the PE-CE interface collects the routes and inserts them into the VRF routing table. BGP Route PropagationOutbound (Cont.)

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. MPLS v The route distinguishers are prepended during the route export to the BGP routes from the VRF instance of the BGP process to convert them into VPNv4 prefixes. Route targets are attached to these prefixes. VPNv4 prefixes are propagated to other PE routers. BGP Route PropagationOutbound (Cont.)

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. MPLS v VPNv4 prefixes are received from other PE routers. The VPNv4 prefixes are inserted into proper VRF routing tables based on their route targets and import route targets configured in VRFs. The route distinguisher is removed during this process. BGP Route PropagationInbound

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. MPLS v BGP Route PropagationInbound (Cont.) Routes are received from backbone MP-BGP and imported into a VRF. IPv4 routes are forwarded to EBGP CE neighbors attached to that VRF.

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. MPLS v RIP-speaking CE routers announce their prefixes to the PE router via RIP. The instance of RIP process associated with the VRF of the PE-CE interface collects the routes and inserts them into the VRF routing table. Non-BGP Route PropagationOutbound

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. MPLS v The RIP routes entered in the VRF routing table are redistributed into BGP for further propagation into the MPLS VPN backbone. Redistribution between RIP and BGP has to be configured for proper MPLS VPN operation. Non-BGP Route PropagationOutbound (Cont.)

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. MPLS v Non-BGP Route PropagationInbound MP-IBGP routes imported into a VRF are redistributed into the instance of RIP configured for that VRF. Redistribution between BGP and RIP has to be configured for end-to-end RIP routing between CE routers.

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. MPLS v Non-BGP Route PropagationInbound (Cont.) Routes redistributed from BGP into a VRF instance of RIP are sent to RIP-speaking CE routers.

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. MPLS v Summary A VRF table is a routing and forwarding instance that associates additional attributes such as RD, import RT, and export RT to routing entries. Routing contexts allow multiple copies of routing protocols to run concurrently as separate VRF instances to prevent undesired route leakage between VPNs. VPN-aware routing protocols allow separation of routing tables either as separate routing processes (OSPF) or separate isolated instances of the same protocol (BGP, EIGRP, RIPv2). A VRF table is used to logically separate routing information from different VPNs.

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. MPLS v Summary (Cont.) Outbound BGP route propagation starts with CE BGP updates. Because the protocol source is BGP, MP-BGP can directly prepend RDs and RTs to the respective inbound instances of CE BGP updates. Inbound BGP route propagation filters routes based on RT into respective instances of VRF. Outbound non-BGP route propagation starts with CE protocols other than BGP. Therefore, an additional step of redistribution is required before prepending RD and RT. Inbound non-BGP route propagation filters routes based on RT into respective VRF instances. Redistribution is required for route propagation with non-BGP speaking CEs.

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. MPLS v