Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) D. Frost, Ed.
Request for Comments: 5960 S. Bryant, Ed.
Category: Standards Track Cisco Systems
ISSN: 2070-1721 M. Bocci, Ed.
Alcatel-Lucent
August 2010
MPLS Transport Profile Data Plane Architecture
Abstract
The Multiprotocol Label Switching Transport Profile (MPLS-TP) is the
set of MPLS protocol functions applicable to the construction and
operation of packet-switched transport networks. This document
specifies the subset of these functions that comprises the MPLS-TP
data plane: the architectural layer concerned with the encapsulation
and forwarding of packets within an MPLS-TP network.
This document is a product of a joint Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF) / International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication
Standardization Sector (ITU-T) effort to include an MPLS Transport
Profile within the IETF MPLS and Pseudowire Emulation Edge-to-Edge
(PWE3) architectures to support the capabilities and functionalities
of a packet transport network.
Status of This Memo
This is an Internet Standards Track document.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on
Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5960.
Frost, et al. Standards Track [Page 1]
RFC 5960 MPLS-TP Data Plane Architecture August 2010
Copyright Notice
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This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1. Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3. Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. MPLS-TP Packet Encapsulation and Forwarding . . . . . . . . . 4
3. MPLS-TP Transport Entities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.1. Label Switched Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.1.1. LSP Packet Encapsulation and Forwarding . . . . . . . 6
3.1.2. LSP Payloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.1.3. LSP Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.2. Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.3. Pseudowires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4. MPLS-TP Generic Associated Channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5. Server-Layer Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
7. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
7.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
7.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Frost, et al. Standards Track [Page 2]
RFC 5960 MPLS-TP Data Plane Architecture August 2010
1. Introduction
The MPLS Transport Profile (MPLS-TP) is the set of functions that
meet the requirements [RFC5654] for the application of MPLS to the
construction and operation of packet-switched transport networks.
MPLS-based packet-switched transport networks, and the overall
architecture of the MPLS-TP, are defined and described in [RFC5921].
It is assumed that the reader is familiar with that document.
This document defines the set of functions that comprise the MPLS-TP
data plane: the architectural layer concerned with the encapsulation