Request for Comments: 3036 Nortel Networks Inc.
Category: Standards Track P. Doolan
Ennovate Networks
N. Feldman
IBM Corp
A. Fredette
PhotonEx Corp
B. Thomas
Cisco Systems, Inc.
January 2001
LDP Specification
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
The architecture for Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is
described in RFC3031. A fundamental concept in MPLS is that two
Label Switching Routers (LSRs) must agree on the meaning of the
labels used to forward traffic between and through them. This common
understanding is achieved by using a set of procedures, called a
label distribution protocol, by which one LSR informs another of
label bindings it has made. This document defines a set of such
procedures called LDP (for Label Distribution Protocol) by which LSRs
distribute labels to support MPLS forwarding along normally routed
paths.
Table of Contents
1 LDP Overview ....................................... 5
1.1 LDP Peers .......................................... 6
1.2 LDP Message Exchange ............................... 6
1.3 LDP Message Structure .............................. 7
1.4 LDP Error Handling ................................. 7
1.5 LDP Extensibility and Future Compatibility ......... 7
1.6 Specification Language ............................. 7
2 LDP Operation ...................................... 8
2.1 FECs ............................................... 8
2.2 Label Spaces, Identifiers, Sessions and Transport .. 9
2.2.1 Label Spaces ....................................... 9
2.2.2 LDP Identifiers .................................... 10
2.2.3 LDP Sessions ....................................... 10
2.2.4 LDP Transport ...................................... 11
2.3 LDP Sessions between non-Directly Connected LSRs ... 11
2.4 LDP Discovery ..................................... 11
2.4.1 Basic Discovery Mechanism .......................... 12
2.4.2 Extended Discovery Mechanism ....................... 12
2.5 Establishing and Maintaining LDP Sessions .......... 13
2.5.1 LDP Session Establishment .......................... 13
2.5.2 Transport Connection Establishment ................. 13
2.5.3 Session Initialization ............................. 14
2.5.4 Initialization State Machine ....................... 17
2.5.5 Maintaining Hello Adjacencies ...................... 20
2.5.6 Maintaining LDP Sessions ........................... 20
2.6 Label Distribution and Management .................. 21
2.6.1 Label Distribution Control Mode .................... 21
2.6.1.1 Independent Label Distribution Control ............. 21
2.6.1.2 Ordered Label Distribution Control ................. 21
2.6.2 Label Retention Mode ............................... 22
2.6.2.1 Conservative Label Retention Mode .................. 22
2.6.2.2 Liberal Label Retention Mode ....................... 22
2.6.3 Label Advertisement Mode ........................... 23
2.7 LDP Identifiers and Next Hop Addresses ............. 23
2.8 Loop Detection ..................................... 24
2.8.1 Label Request Message .............................. 24
2.8.2 Label Mapping Message .............................. 26
2.8.3 Discussion ......................................... 27
2.9 Authenticity and Integrity of LDP Messages ......... 28
2.9.1 TCP MD5 Signature Option ........................... 28
2.9.2 LDP Use of TCP MD5 Signature Option ................ 30
2.10 Label Distribution for Explicitly Routed LSPs ...... 30
3 Protocol Specification ............................. 31
3.1 LDP PDUs ........................................... 31
3.2 LDP Procedures ..................................... 32
3.3 Type-Length-Value Encoding ......................... 32
3.4 TLV Encodings for Commonly Used Parameters ......... 34
3.4.1 FEC TLV ............................................ 34
3.4.1.1 FEC Procedures ..................................... 37
3.4.2 Label TLVs ......................................... 37
3.4.2.1 Generic Label TLV .................................. 37
3.4.2.2 ATM Label TLV ...................................... 38
3.4.2.3 Frame Relay Label TLV .............................. 38
3.4.3 Address List TLV ................................... 39
3.4.4 Hop Count TLV ...................................... 40
3.4.4.1 Hop Count Procedures ............................... 40
3.4.5 Path Vector TLV .................................... 41
3.4.5.1 Path Vector Procedures ............................. 42
3.4.5.1.1 Label Request Path Vector .......................... 42
3.4.5.1.2 Label Mapping Path Vector .......................... 43
3.4.6 Status TLV ......................................... 43
3.5 LDP Messages ....................................... 45
3.5.1 Notification Message ............................... 47
3.5.1.1 Notification Message Procedures .................... 48
3.5.1.2 Events Signaled by Notification Messages ........... 49
3.5.1.2.1 Malformed PDU or Message ........................... 49
3.5.1.2.2 Unknown or Malformed TLV ........................... 50
3.5.1.2.3 Session KeepAlive Timer Expiration ................. 50
3.5.1.2.4 Unilateral Session Shutdown ........................ 51
3.5.1.2.5 Initialization Message Events ...................... 51
3.5.1.2.6 Events Resulting From Other Messages ............... 51
3.5.1.2.7 Internal Errors .................................... 51
3.5.1.2.8 Miscellaneous Events ............................... 51
3.5.2 Hello Message ...................................... 51
3.5.2.1 Hello Message Procedures ........................... 54
3.5.3 Initialization Message ............................. 55
3.5.3.1 Initialization Message Procedures .................. 63
3.5.4 KeepAlive Message .................................. 63
3.5.4.1 KeepAlive Message Procedures ....................... 63
3.5.5 Address Message .................................... 64
3.5.5.1 Address Message Procedures ......................... 64
3.5.6 Address Withdraw Message ........................... 65
3.5.6.1 Address Withdraw Message Procedures ................ 66
3.5.7 Label Mapping Message .............................. 66
3.5.7.1 Label Mapping Message Procedures ................... 67
3.5.7.1.1 Independent Control Mapping ........................ 67
3.5.7.1.2 Ordered Control Mapping ............................ 68
3.5.7.1.3 Downstream on Demand Label Advertisement ........... 68
3.5.7.1.4 Downstream Unsolicited Label Advertisement ......... 69
3.5.8 Label Request Message .............................. 69
3.5.8.1 Label Request Message Procedures ................... 70
3.5.9 Label Abort Request Message ........................ 72
3.5.9.1 Label Abort Request Message Procedures ............. 73
3.5.10 Label Withdraw Message ............................. 74
3.5.10.1 Label Withdraw Message Procedures .................. 75
3.5.11 Label Release Message .............................. 76
3.5.11.1 Label Release Message Procedures ................... 77
3.6 Messages and TLVs for Extensibility ................ 78
3.6.1 LDP Vendor-private Extensions ...................... 78
3.6.1.1 LDP Vendor-private TLVs ............................ 78
3.6.1.2 LDP Vendor-private Messages ........................ 80
3.6.2 LDP Experimental Extensions ........................ 81
3.7 Message Summary .................................... 81
3.8 TLV Summary ........................................ 82
3.9 Status Code Summary ................................ 83
3.10 Well-known Numbers ................................. 84
3.10.1 UDP and TCP Ports .................................. 84
3.10.2 Implicit NULL Label ................................ 84
4 IANA Considerations ................................ 84
4.1 Message Type Name Space ............................ 84
4.2 TLV Type Name Space ................................ 85
4.3 FEC Type Name Space ................................ 85
4.4 Status Code Name Space ............................. 86
4.5 Experiment ID Name Space ........................... 86
5 Security Considerations ............................ 86
5.1 Spoofing ........................................... 86
5.2 Privacy ............................................ 87
5.3 Denial of Service .................................. 87
6 Areas for Future Study ............................. 89
7 Intellectual Property Considerations ............... 89
8 Acknowledgments .................................... 89
9 References ......................................... 89
10 Authors' Addresses ................................. 92
Appendix A LDP Label Distribution Procedures .................. 93
A.1 Handling Label Distribution Events ................. 95
A.1.1 Receive Label Request .............................. 96
A.1.2 Receive Label Mapping .............................. 99
A.1.3 Receive Label Abort Request ........................ 105
A.1.4 Receive Label Release .............................. 107
A.1.5 Receive Label Withdraw ............................. 109
A.1.6 Recognize New FEC .................................. 110
A.1.7 Detect Change in FEC Next Hop ...................... 113
A.1.8 Receive Notification / Label Request Aborted ....... 116
A.1.9 Receive Notification / No Label Resources .......... 116
A.1.10 Receive Notification / No Route .................... 117
A.1.11 Receive Notification / Loop Detected ............... 118
A.1.12 Receive Notification / Label Resources Available ... 118
A.1.13 Detect local label resources have become available . 119
A.1.14 LSR decides to no longer label switch a FEC ........ 120
A.1.15 Timeout of deferred label request .................. 121
A.2 Common Label Distribution Procedures ............... 121
A.2.1 Send_Label ......................................... 121
A.2.2 Send_Label_Request ................................. 123
A.2.3 Send_Label_Withdraw ................................ 124
A.2.4 Send_Notification .................................. 125
A.2.5 Send_Message ....................................... 125
A.2.6 Check_Received_Attributes .......................... 126
A.2.7 Prepare_Label_Request_Attributes ................... 127
A.2.8 Prepare_Label_Mapping_Attributes ................... 129
Full Copyright Statement ...................................... 132
1. LDP Overview
The MPLS architecture [RFC3031] defines a label distribution protocol
as a set of procedures by which one Label Switched Router (LSR)
informs another of the meaning of labels used to forward traffic
between and through them.
The MPLS architecture does not assume a single label distribution
protocol. In fact, a number of different label distribution
protocols are being standardized. Existing protocols have been
extended so that label distribution can be piggybacked on them. New
protocols have also been defined for the explicit purpose of
distributing labels. The MPLS architecture discusses some of the
considerations when choosing a label distribution protocol for use in
particular MPLS applications such as Traffic Engineering [RFC2702].
The Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) defined in this document is a
new protocol defined for distributing labels. It is the set of
procedures and messages by which Label Switched Routers (LSRs)
establish Label Switched Paths (LSPs) through a network by mapping
network-layer routing information directly to data-link layer
switched paths. These LSPs may have an endpoint at a directly
attached neighbor (comparable to IP hop-by-hop forwarding), or may
have an endpoint at a network egress node, enabling switching via all
intermediary nodes.
LDP associates a Forwarding Equivalence Class (FEC) [RFC3031] with
each LSP it creates. The FEC associated with an LSP specifies which
packets are "mapped" to that LSP. LSPs are extended through a
network as each LSR "splices" incoming labels for a FEC to the
outgoing label assigned to the next hop for the given FEC.
More information about the applicability of LDP can be found in
[RFC3037].
This document assumes familiarity with the MPLS architecture
[RFC3031]. Note that [RFC3031] includes a glossary of MPLS
terminology, such as ingress, label switched path, etc.
1.1. LDP Peers
Two LSRs which use LDP to exchange label/FEC mapping information are
known as "LDP Peers" with respect to that information and we speak of
there being an "LDP Session" between them. A single LDP session
allows each peer to learn the other's label mappings; i.e., the
protocol is bi-directional.
1.2. LDP Message Exchange
There are four categories of LDP messages:
1. Discovery messages, used to announce and maintain the presence
of an LSR in a network.
2. Session messages, used to establish, maintain, and terminate
sessions between LDP peers.
3. Advertisement messages, used to create, change, and delete
label mappings for FECs.
4. Notification messages, used to provide advisory information and
to signal error information.
Discovery messages provide a mechanism whereby LSRs indicate their
presence in a network by sending a Hello message periodically. This
is transmitted as a UDP packet to the LDP port at the `all routers on
this subnet' group multicast address. When an LSR chooses to
establish a session with another LSR learned via the Hello message,
it uses the LDP initialization procedure over TCP transport. Upon
successful completion of the initialization procedure, the two LSRs
are LDP peers, and may exchange advertisement messages.
When to request a label or advertise a label mapping to a peer is
largely a local decision made by an LSR. In general, the LSR
requests a label mapping from a neighboring LSR when it needs one,
and advertises a label mapping to a neighboring LSR when it wishes
the neighbor to use a label.
Correct operation of LDP requires reliable and in order delivery of
messages. To satisfy these requirements LDP uses the TCP transport
for session, advertisement and notification messages; i.e., for
everything but the UDP-based discovery mechanism.
1.3. LDP Message Structure
All LDP messages have a common structure that uses a Type-Length-
Value (TLV) encoding scheme; see Section "Type-Length-Value"
encoding. The Value part of a TLV-encoded object, or TLV for short,
may itself contain one or more TLVs.
1.4. LDP Error Handling
LDP errors and other events of interest are signaled to an LDP peer
by notification messages.
There are two kinds of LDP notification messages:
1. Error notifications, used to signal fatal errors. If an LSR
receives an error notification from a peer for an LDP session,
it terminates the LDP session by closing the TCP transport
connection for the session and discarding all label mappings
learned via the session.
2. Advisory notifications, used to pass an LSR information about
the LDP session or the status of some previous message received
from the peer.
1.5. LDP Extensibility and Future Compatibility
Functionality may be added to LDP in the future. It is likely that
future functionality will utilize new messages and object types
(TLVs). It may be desirable to employ such new messages and TLVs
within a network using older implementations that do not recognize
them. While it is not possible to make every future enhancement
backwards compatible, some prior planning can ease the introduction
of new capabilities. This specification defines rules for handling
unknown message types and unknown TLVs for this purpose.
1.6. Specification Language
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].
2. LDP Operation
2.1. FECs
It is necessary to precisely specify which packets may be mapped to
each LSP. This is done by providing a FEC specification for each
LSP. The FEC identifies the set of IP packets which may be mapped to
that LSP.
Each FEC is specified as a set of one or more FEC elements. Each FEC
element identifies a set of packets which may be mapped to the
corresponding LSP. When an LSP is shared by multiple FEC elements,
that LSP is terminated at (or before) the node where the FEC elements
can no longer share the same path.
Following are the currently defined types of FEC elements. New
element types may be added as needed:
1. Address Prefix. This element is an address prefix of any
length from 0 to a full address, inclusive.
2. Host Address. This element is a full host address.
(We will see below that an Address Prefix FEC element which is a full
address has a different effect than a Host Address FEC element which
has the same address.)
We say that a particular address "matches" a particular address
prefix if and only if that address begins with that prefix. We also
say that a particular packet matches a particular LSP if and only if
that LSP has an Address Prefix FEC element which matches the packet's
destination address. With respect to a particular packet and a
particular LSP, we refer to any Address Prefix FEC element which
matches the packet as the "matching prefix".
The procedure for mapping a particular packet to a particular LSP
uses the following rules. Each rule is applied in turn until the
packet can be mapped to an LSP.
- If there is exactly one LSP which has a Host Address FEC
element that is identical to the packet's destination address,
then the packet is mapped to that LSP.
- If there are multiple LSPs, each containing a Host Address FEC
element that is identical to the packet's destination address,
then the packet is mapped to one of those LSPs. The procedure
for selecting one of those LSPs is beyond the scope of this
document.
- If a packet matches exactly one LSP, the packet is mapped to
that LSP.
- If a packet matches multiple LSPs, it is mapped to the LSP
whose matching prefix is the longest. If there is no one LSP
whose matching prefix is longest, the packet is mapped to one
from the set of LSPs whose matching prefix is longer than the
others. The procedure for selecting one of those LSPs is
beyond the scope of this document.
- If it is known that a packet must traverse a particular egress
router, and there is an LSP which has an Address Prefix FEC
element which is an address of that router, then the packet is
mapped to that LSP. The procedure for obtaining this knowledge
is beyond the scope of this document.
The procedure for determining that a packet must traverse a
particular egress router is beyond the scope of this document. (As
an example, if one is running a link state routing algorithm, it may
be possible to obtain this information from the link state data base.
As another example, if one is running BGP, it may be possible to
obtain this information from the BGP next hop attribute of the
packet's route.)
It is worth pointing out a few consequences of these rules:
- A packet may be sent on the LSP whose Address Prefix FEC
element is the address of the packet's egress router ONLY if
there is no LSP matching the packet's destination address.
- A packet may match two LSPs, one with a Host Address FEC
element and one with an Address Prefix FEC element. In this
case, the packet is always assigned to the former.
- A packet which does not match a particular Host Address FEC
element may not be sent on the corresponding LSP, even if the
Host Address FEC element identifies the packet's egress router.
2.2. Label Spaces, Identifiers, Sessions and Transport
2.2.1. Label Spaces
The notion of "label space" is useful for discussing the assignment
and distribution of labels. There are two types of label spaces:
- Per interface label space. Interface-specific incoming labels
are used for interfaces that use interface resources for
labels. An example of such an interface is a label-controlled
ATM interface that uses VCIs as labels, or a Frame Relay
interface that uses DLCIs as labels.
Note that the use of a per interface label space only makes
sense when the LDP peers are "directly connected" over an
interface, and the label is only going to be used for traffic
sent over that interface.
- Per platform label space. Platform-wide incoming labels are
used for interfaces that can share the same labels.
2.2.2. LDP Identifiers
An LDP identifier is a six octet quantity used to identify an LSR
label space. The first four octets identify the LSR and must be a
globally unique value, such as a 32-bit router Id assigned to the
LSR. The last two octets identify a specific label space within the
LSR. The last two octets of LDP Identifiers for platform-wide label
spaces are always both zero. This document uses the following print
representation for LDP Identifiers:
<LSR Id> : <label space id>
e.g., lsr171:0, lsr19:2.
Note that an LSR that manages and advertises multiple label spaces
uses a different LDP Identifier for each such label space.
A situation where an LSR would need to advertise more than one label
space to a peer and hence use more than one LDP Identifier occurs
when the LSR has two links to the peer and both are ATM (and use per
interface labels). Another situation would be where the LSR had two
links to the peer, one of which is ethernet (and uses per platform
labels) and the other of which is ATM.
2.2.3. LDP Sessions
LDP sessions exist between LSRs to support label exchange between
them.
When an LSR uses LDP to advertise more than one label space to
another LSR it uses a separate LDP session for each label space.
2.2.4. LDP Transport
LDP uses TCP as a reliable transport for sessions.
When multiple LDP sessions are required between two LSRs there is
one TCP session for each LDP session.
2.3. LDP Sessions between non-Directly Connected LSRs
LDP sessions between LSRs that are not directly connected at the link
level may be desirable in some situations.
For example, consider a "traffic engineering" application where LSRa
sends traffic matching some criteria via an LSP to non-directly
connected LSRb rather than forwarding the traffic along its normally
routed path.
The path between LSRa and LSRb would include one or more intermediate
LSRs (LSR1,...LSRn). An LDP session between LSRa and LSRb would
enable LSRb to label switch traffic arriving on the LSP from LSRa by
providing LSRb means to advertise labels for this purpose to LSRa.
In this situation LSRa would apply two labels to traffic it forwards
on the LSP to LSRb: a label learned from LSR1 to forward traffic
along the LSP path from LSRa to LSRb; and a label learned from LSRb
to enable LSRb to label switch traffic arriving on the LSP.
LSRa first adds the label learned via its LDP session with LSRb to
the packet label stack (either by replacing the label on top of the
packet label stack with it if the packet arrives labeled or by
pushing it if the packet arrives unlabeled). Next, it pushes the
label for the LSP learned from LSR1 onto the label stack.
2.4. LDP Discovery
LDP discovery is a mechanism that enables an LSR to discover
potential LDP peers. Discovery makes it unnecessary to explicitly
configure an LSR's label switching peers.
There are two variants of the discovery mechanism:
- A basic discovery mechanism used to discover LSR neighbors that
are directly connected at the link level.
- An extended discovery mechanism used to locate LSRs that are
not directly connected at the link level.
2.4.1. Basic Discovery Mechanism
To engage in LDP Basic Discovery on an interface an LSR periodically
sends LDP Link Hellos out the interface. LDP Link Hellos are sent as
UDP packets addressed to the well-known LDP discovery port for the
"all routers on this subnet" group multicast address.
An LDP Link Hello sent by an LSR carries the LDP Identifier for the
label space the LSR intends to use for the interface and possibly
additional information.
Receipt of an LDP Link Hello on an interface identifies a "Hello
adjacency" with a potential LDP peer reachable at the link level on
the interface as well as the label space the peer intends to use for
the interface.
2.4.2. Extended Discovery Mechanism
LDP sessions between non-directly connected LSRs are supported by LDP
Extended Discovery.
To engage in LDP Extended Discovery an LSR periodically sends LDP
Targeted Hellos to a specific address. LDP Targeted Hellos are sent
as UDP packets addressed to the well-known LDP discovery port at the
specific address.
An LDP Targeted Hello sent by an LSR carries the LDP Identifier for
the label space the LSR intends to use and possibly additional
optional information.
Extended Discovery differs from Basic Discovery in the following
ways:
- A Targeted Hello is sent to a specific address rather than to
the "all routers" group multicast address for the outgoing
interface.
- Unlike Basic Discovery, which is symmetric, Extended Discovery
is asymmetric.
One LSR initiates Extended Discovery with another targeted LSR,
and the targeted LSR decides whether to respond to or ignore
the Targeted Hello. A targeted LSR that chooses to respond
does so by periodically sending Targeted Hellos to the
initiating LSR.
Receipt of an LDP Targeted Hello identifies a "Hello adjacency" with
a potential LDP peer reachable at the network level and the label
space the peer intends to use.
2.5. Establishing and Maintaining LDP Sessions
2.5.1. LDP Session Establishment
The exchange of LDP Discovery Hellos between two LSRs triggers LDP
session establishment. Session establishment is a two step process:
- Transport connection establishment.
- Session initialization
The following describes establishment of an LDP session between LSRs
LSR1 and LSR2 from LSR1's point of view. It assumes the exchange of
Hellos specifying label space LSR1:a for LSR1 and label space LSR2:b
for LSR2.
2.5.2. Transport Connection Establishment
The exchange of Hellos results in the creation of a Hello adjacency
at LSR1 that serves to bind the link (L) and the label spaces LSR1:a
and LSR2:b.
1. If LSR1 does not already have an LDP session for the exchange
of label spaces LSR1:a and LSR2:b it attempts to open a TCP
connection for a new LDP session with LSR2.
LSR1 determines the transport addresses to be used at its end
(A1) and LSR2's end (A2) of the LDP TCP connection. Address A1
is determined as follows:
a. If LSR1 uses the Transport Address optional object (TLV) in
Hello's it sends to LSR2 to advertise an address, A1 is the
address LSR1 advertises via the optional object;
b. If LSR1 does not use the Transport Address optional object,
A1 is the source address used in Hellos it sends to LSR2.
Similarly, address A2 is determined as follows:
a. If LSR2 uses the Transport Address optional object, A2 is
the address LSR2 advertises via the optional object;
b. If LSR2 does not use the Transport Address optional object,
A2 is the source address in Hellos received from LSR2.
2. LSR1 determines whether it will play the active or passive role
in session establishment by comparing addresses A1 and A2 as
unsigned integers. If A1 > A2, LSR1 plays the active role;
otherwise it is passive.
The procedure for comparing A1 and A2 as unsigned integers is:
- If A1 and A2 are not in the same address family, they are
incomparable, and no session can be established.
- Let U1 be the abstract unsigned integer obtained by treating
A1 as a sequence of bytes, where the byte which appears
earliest in the message is the most significant byte of the
integer and the byte which appears latest in the message is
the least significant byte of the integer.
Let U2 be the abstract unsigned integer obtained from A2 in
a similar manner.
- Compare U1 with U2. If U1 > U2, then A1 > A2; if U1 < U2,
then A1 < A2.
3. If LSR1 is active, it attempts to establish the LDP TCP
connection by connecting to the well-known LDP port at address
A2. If LSR1 is passive, it waits for LSR2 to establish the LDP
TCP connection to its well-known LDP port.
Note that when an LSR sends a Hello it selects the transport address
for its end of the session connection and uses the Hello to advertise
the address, either explicitly by including it in an optional
Transport Address TLV or implicitly by omitting the TLV and using it
as the Hello source address.
An LSR MUST advertise the same transport address in all Hellos that
advertise the same label space. This requirement ensures that two
LSRs linked by multiple Hello adjacencies using the same label spaces
play the same connection establishment role for each adjacency.
2.5.3. Session Initialization
After LSR1 and LSR2 establish a transport connection they negotiate
session parameters by exchanging LDP Initialization messages. The
parameters negotiated include LDP protocol version, label
distribution method, timer values, VPI/VCI ranges for label
controlled ATM, DLCI ranges for label controlled Frame Relay, etc.
Successful negotiation completes establishment of an LDP session
between LSR1 and LSR2 for the advertisement of label spaces LSR1:a
and LSR2:b.
The following describes the session initialization from LSR1's point
of view.
After the connection is established, if LSR1 is playing the active
role, it initiates negotiation of session parameters by sending an
Initialization message to LSR2. If LSR1 is passive, it waits for
LSR2 to initiate the parameter negotiation.
In general when there are multiple links between LSR1 and LSR2 and
multiple label spaces to be advertised by each, the passive LSR
cannot know which label space to advertise over a newly established
TCP connection until it receives the LDP Initialization message on
the connection. The Initialization message carries both the LDP
Identifier for the sender's (active LSR's) label space and the LDP
Identifier for the receiver's (passive LSR's) label space.
By waiting for the Initialization message from its peer the passive
LSR can match the label space to be advertised by the peer (as
determined from the LDP Identifier in the PDU header for the
Initialization message) with a Hello adjacency previously created
when Hellos were exchanged.
1. When LSR1 plays the passive role:
a. If LSR1 receives an Initialization message it attempts to
match the LDP Identifier carried by the message PDU with a
Hello adjacency.
b. If there is a matching Hello adjacency, the adjacency
specifies the local label space for the session.
Next LSR1 checks whether the session parameters proposed in
the message are acceptable. If they are, LSR1 replies with
an Initialization message of its own to propose the
parameters it wishes to use and a KeepAlive message to
signal acceptance of LSR2's parameters. If the parameters
are not acceptable, LSR1 responds by sending a Session
Rejected/Parameters Error Notification message and closing
the TCP connection.
c. If LSR1 cannot find a matching Hello adjacency it sends a
Session Rejected/No Hello Error Notification message and
closes the TCP connection.
d. If LSR1 receives a KeepAlive in response to its
Initialization message, the session is operational from
LSR1's point of view.
e. If LSR1 receives an Error Notification message, LSR2 has
rejected its proposed session and LSR1 closes the TCP
connection.
2. When LSR1 plays the active role:
a. If LSR1 receives an Error Notification message, LSR2 has
rejected its proposed session and LSR1 closes the TCP
connection.
b. If LSR1 receives an Initialization message, it checks
whether the session parameters are acceptable. If so, it
replies with a KeepAlive message. If the session parameters
are unacceptable, LSR1 sends a Session Rejected/Parameters
Error Notification message and closes the connection.
c. If LSR1 receives a KeepAlive message, LSR2 has accepted its
proposed session parameters.
d. When LSR1 has received both an acceptable Initialization
message and a KeepAlive message the session is operational
from LSR1's point of view.
It is possible for a pair of incompatibly configured LSRs that
disagree on session parameters to engage in an endless sequence of
messages as each NAKs the other's Initialization messages with
Error Notification messages.
An LSR must throttle its session setup retry attempts with an
exponential backoff in situations where Initialization messages
are being NAK'd. It is also recommended that an LSR detecting
such a situation take action to notify an operator.
The session establishment setup attempt following a NAK'd
Initialization message must be delayed no less than 15 seconds,
and subsequent delays must grow to a maximum delay of no less than
2 minutes. The specific session establishment action that must be
delayed is the attempt to open the session transport connection by
the LSR playing the active role.
The throttled sequence of Initialization NAKs is unlikely to cease
until operator intervention reconfigures one of the LSRs. After
such a configuration action there is no further need to throttle
subsequent session establishment attempts (until their
initialization messages are NAK'd).
Due to the asymmetric nature of session establishment,
reconfiguration of the passive LSR will go unnoticed by the active
LSR without some further action. Section "Hello Message"
describes an optional mechanism an LSR can use to signal potential
LDP peers that it has been reconfigured.
2.5.4. Initialization State Machine
It is convenient to describe LDP session negotiation behavior in
terms of a state machine. We define the LDP state machine to have
five possible states and present the behavior as a state transition
table and as a state transition diagram.
Session Initialization State Transition Table
STATE EVENT NEW STATE
NON EXISTENT Session TCP connection established INITIALIZED
established
INITIALIZED Transmit Initialization msg OPENSENT
(Active Role)
Receive acceptable OPENREC
Initialization msg
(Passive Role )
Action: Transmit Initialization
msg and KeepAlive msg
Receive Any other LDP msg NON EXISTENT
Action: Transmit Error Notification msg
(NAK) and close transport connection
OPENREC Receive KeepAlive msg OPERATIONAL
Receive Any other LDP msg NON EXISTENT
Action: Transmit Error Notification msg
(NAK) and close transport connection
OPENSENT Receive acceptable OPENREC
Initialization msg
Action: Transmit KeepAlive msg
Receive Any other LDP msg NON EXISTENT
Action: Transmit Error Notification msg
(NAK) and close transport connection
OPERATIONAL Receive Shutdown msg NON EXISTENT
Action: Transmit Shutdown msg and
close transport connection
Receive other LDP msgs OPERATIONAL
Timeout NON EXISTENT
Action: Transmit Shutdown msg and
close transport connection
Session Initialization State Transition Diagram
+------------+
| |
+------------>|NON EXISTENT|<--------------------+
| | | |
| +------------+ |
| Session | ^ |
| connection | | |
| established | | Rx any LDP msg except |
| V | Init msg or Timeout |
| +-----------+ |
Rx Any other | | | |
msg or | |INITIALIZED| |
Timeout / | +---| |-+ |
Tx NAK msg | | +-----------+ | |
| | (Passive Role) | (Active Role) |
| | Rx Acceptable | Tx Init msg |
| | Init msg / | |
| | Tx Init msg | |
| | Tx KeepAlive | |
| V msg V |
| +-------+ +--------+ |
| | | | | |
+---|OPENREC| |OPENSENT|----------------->|
+---| | | | Rx Any other msg |
| +-------+ +--------+ or Timeout |
Rx KeepAlive | ^ | Tx NAK msg |
msg | | | |
| | | Rx Acceptable |
| | | Init msg / |
| +----------------+ Tx KeepAlive msg |
| |
| +-----------+ |
+----->| | |
|OPERATIONAL| |
| |---------------------------->+
+-----------+ Rx Shutdown msg
All other | ^ or Timeout /
LDP msgs | | Tx Shutdown msg
| |
+---+
2.5.5. Maintaining Hello Adjacencies
An LDP session with a peer has one or more Hello adjacencies.
An LDP session has multiple Hello adjacencies when a pair of LSRs is
connected by multiple links that share the same label space; for
example, multiple PPP links between a pair of routers. In this
situation the Hellos an LSR sends on each such link carry the same
LDP Identifier.
LDP includes mechanisms to monitor the necessity of an LDP session
and its Hello adjacencies.
LDP uses the regular receipt of LDP Discovery Hellos to indicate a
peer's intent to use the label space identified by the Hello. An LSR
maintains a hold timer with each Hello adjacency which it restarts
when it receives a Hello that matches the adjacency. If the timer
expires without receipt of a matching Hello from the peer, LDP
concludes that the peer no longer wishes to label switch using that
label space for that link (or target, in the case of Targeted Hellos)
or that the peer has failed. The LSR then deletes the Hello
adjacency. When the last Hello adjacency for a LDP session is
deleted, the LSR terminates the LDP session by sending a Notification
message and closing the transport connection.
2.5.6. Maintaining LDP Sessions
LDP includes mechanisms to monitor the integrity of the LDP session.
LDP uses the regular receipt of LDP PDUs on the session transport
connection to monitor the integrity of the session. An LSR maintains
a KeepAlive timer for each peer session which it resets whenever it
receives an LDP PDU from the session peer. If the KeepAlive timer
expires without receipt of an LDP PDU from the peer the LSR concludes
that the transport connection is bad or that the peer has failed, and
it terminates the LDP session by closing the transport connection.
After an LDP session has been established, an LSR must arrange that
its peer receive an LDP PDU from it at least every KeepAlive time
period to ensure the peer restarts the session KeepAlive timer. The
LSR may send any protocol message to meet this requirement. In
circumstances where an LSR has no other information to communicate to
its peer, it sends a KeepAlive message.
An LSR may choose to terminate an LDP session with a peer at any
time. Should it choose to do so, it informs the peer with a Shutdown
message.
2.6. Label Distribution and Management
The MPLS architecture [RF3031] allows an LSR to distribute a FEC
label binding in response to an explicit request from another LSR.
This is known as Downstream On Demand label distribution. It also
allows an LSR to distribute label bindings to LSRs that have not
explicitly requested them. [RFC3031] calls this method of label
distribution Unsolicited Downstream; this document uses the term
Downstream Unsolicited.
Both of these label distribution techniques may be used in the same
network at the same time. However, for any given LDP session, each
LSR must be aware of the label distribution method used by its peer
in order to avoid situations where one peer using Downstream
Unsolicited label distribution assumes its peer is also. See Section
"Downstream on Demand label Advertisement".
2.6.1. Label Distribution Control Mode
The behavior of the initial setup of LSPs is determined by whether
the LSR is operating with independent or ordered LSP control. An LSR
may support both types of control as a configurable option.
2.6.1.1. Independent Label Distribution Control
When using independent LSP control, each LSR may advertise label
mappings to its neighbors at any time it desires. For example, when
operating in independent Downstream on Demand mode, an LSR may answer
requests for label mappings immediately, without waiting for a label
mapping from the next hop. When operating in independent Downstream
Unsolicited mode, an LSR may advertise a label mapping for a FEC to
its neighbors whenever it is prepared to label-switch that FEC.
A consequence of using independent mode is that an upstream label can
be advertised before a downstream label is received.
2.6.1.2. Ordered Label Distribution Control
When using LSP ordered control, an LSR may initiate the transmission
of a label mapping only for a FEC for which it has a label mapping
for the FEC next hop, or for which the LSR is the egress. For each
FEC for which the LSR is not the egress and no mapping exists, the
LSR MUST wait until a label from a downstream LSR is received before
mapping the FEC and passing corresponding labels to upstream LSRs.
An LSR may be an egress for some FECs and a non-egress for others.
An LSR may act as an egress LSR, with respect to a particular FEC,
under any of the following conditions:
1. The FEC refers to the LSR itself (including one of its directly
attached interfaces).
2. The next hop router for the FEC is outside of the Label
Switching Network.
3. FEC elements are reachable by crossing a routing domain
boundary, such as another area for OSPF summary networks, or
another autonomous system for OSPF AS externals and BGP routes
[RFC2328] [RFC1771].
Note that whether an LSR is an egress for a given FEC may change over
time, depending on the state of the network and LSR configuration
settings.
2.6.2. Label Retention Mode
The MPLS architecture [RFC3031] introduces the notion of label
retention mode which specifies whether an LSR maintains a label
binding for a FEC learned from a neighbor that is not its next hop
for the FEC.
2.6.2.1. Conservative Label Retention Mode
In Downstream Unsolicited advertisement mode, label mapping
advertisements for all routes may be received from all peer LSRs.
When using conservative label retention, advertised label mappings
are retained only if they will be used to forward packets (i.e., if
they are received from a valid next hop according to routing). If
operating in Downstream on Demand mode, an LSR will request label
mappings only from the next hop LSR according to routing. Since
Downstream on Demand mode is primarily used when label conservation
is desired (e.g., an ATM switch with limited cross connect space), it
is typically used with the conservative label retention mode.
The main advantage of the conservative mode is that only the labels
that are required for the forwarding of data are allocated and
maintained. This is particularly important in LSRs where the label
space is inherently limited, such as in an ATM switch. A
disadvantage of the conservative mode is that if routing changes the
next hop for a given destination, a new label must be obtained from
the new next hop before labeled packets can be forwarded.
2.6.2.2. Liberal Label Retention Mode
In Downstream Unsolicited advertisement mode, label mapping
advertisements for all routes may be received from all LDP peers.
When using liberal label retention, every label mappings received
from a peer LSR is retained regardless of whether the LSR is the next
hop for the advertised mapping. When operating in Downstream on
Demand mode with liberal label retention, an LSR might choose to
request label mappings for all known prefixes from all peer LSRs.
Note, however, that Downstream on Demand mode is typically used by
devices such as ATM switch-based LSRs for which the conservative
approach is recommended.
The main advantage of the liberal label retention mode is that
reaction to routing changes can be quick because labels already
exist. The main disadvantage of the liberal mode is that unneeded
label mappings are distributed and maintained.
2.6.3. Label Advertisement Mode
Each interface on an LSR is configured to operate in either
Downstream Unsolicited or Downstream on Demand advertisement mode.
LSRs exchange advertisement modes during initialization. The major
difference between Downstream Unsolicited and Downstream on Demand
modes is in which LSR takes responsibility for initiating mapping
requests and mapping advertisements.
2.7. LDP Identifiers and Next Hop Addresses
An LSR maintains learned labels in a Label Information Base (LIB).
When operating in Downstream Unsolicited mode, the LIB entry for an
address prefix associates a collection of (LDP Identifier, label)
pairs with the prefix, one such pair for each peer advertising a
label for the prefix.
When the next hop for a prefix changes the LSR must retrieve the
label advertised by the new next hop from the LIB for use in
forwarding. To retrieve the label the LSR must be able to map the
next hop address for the prefix to an LDP Identifier.
Similarly, when the LSR learns a label for a prefix from an LDP peer,
it must be able to determine whether that peer is currently a next
hop for the prefix to determine whether it needs to start using the
newly learned label when forwarding packets that match the prefix.
To make that decision the LSR must be able to map an LDP Identifier
to the peer's addresses to check whether any are a next hop for the
prefix.
To enable LSRs to map between a peer LDP identifier and the peer's
addresses, LSRs advertise their addresses using LDP Address and
Withdraw Address messages.
An LSR sends an Address message to advertise its addresses to a peer.
An LSR sends a Withdraw Address message to withdraw previously
advertised addresses from a peer
2.8. Loop Detection
Loop detection is a configurable option which provides a mechanism
for finding looping LSPs and for preventing Label Request messages
from looping in the presence of non-merge capable LSRs.
The mechanism makes use of Path Vector and Hop Count TLVs carried by
Label Request and Label Mapping messages. It builds on the following
basic properties of these TLVs:
- A Path Vector TLV contains a list of the LSRs that its
containing message has traversed. An LSR is identified in a
Path Vector list by its unique LSR Identifier (Id), which is
the first four octets of its LDP Identifier. When an LSR
propagates a message containing a Path Vector TLV it adds its
LSR Id to the Path Vector list. An LSR that receives a message
with a Path Vector that contains its LSR Id detects that the
message has traversed a loop. LDP supports the notion of a
maximum allowable Path Vector length; an LSR that detects a
Path Vector has reached the maximum length behaves as if the
containing message has traversed a loop.
- A Hop Count TLV contains a count of the LSRS that the
containing message has traversed. When an LSR propagates a
message containing a Hop Count TLV it increments the count. An
LSR that detects a Hop Count has reached a configured maximum