MPLS

This document specifies the MPLS Network Action (MNA) Sub-Stack for carrying network actions and Ancillary Data (AD) in the MPLS label stack. MNA can be used to influence packet-forwarding decisions, carry additional Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) information in the MPLS packet, or perform user-defined operations.

This document updates RFC 9789 to refine the list of pieces of information that must be included in any document that defines an MNA.

Segment Routing (SR) Point-to-Multipoint (P2MP) Policies are used to define and manage explicit P2MP paths within a network. These policies are typically calculated via a controller-based mechanism and installed via, e.g., a Path Computation Element (PCE). In other cases, these policies can be installed using the Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF) / YANG or a Command Line Interface (CLI). They are used to steer Multicast traffic along optimized paths from a Root to a set of Leaf routers.

This document defines extensions to ping and traceroute mechanisms for an SR P2MP Policy with MPLS encapsulation to provide Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) capabilities. The extensions enable operators to verify connectivity, diagnose failures, and troubleshoot forwarding issues within SR P2MP Policy Multicast trees.

By introducing new mechanisms for detecting failures and validating path integrity, this document enhances the operational robustness of P2MP Multicast deployments. Additionally, it ensures that existing MPLS and SR-based OAM tools can be effectively applied to networks utilizing SR P2MP Policies.

This document defines a YANG data model that can be used to manage IS-IS extensions for Segment Routing (SR) over the MPLS data plane.

This document defines a YANG data model that can be used to manage OSPF extensions for Segment Routing over the MPLS data plane.

Network slicing is a feature that was introduced by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) in Mobile Networks. Realization of 5G slicing implies requirements for all mobile domains, including the Radio Access Network (RAN), Core Network (CN), and Transport Network (TN).

This document describes a network slice realization model for IP/MPLS networks with a focus on the Transport Network fulfilling the service objectives for 5G slicing connectivity. The realization model reuses many building blocks commonly used in service provider networks at the current time.

This document describes a mechanism used to collect Segment Routing (SR) Policy information that is locally available in a node and advertise it into BGP - Link State (BGP-LS) updates. Such information can be used by external components for path computation, reoptimization, service placement, network visualization, etc.

Segment Routing (SR) leverages source routing to steer packets through an ordered list of instructions called "segments". SR can be instantiated over the MPLS data plane. Path Segment Identifiers (PSIDs) are used to identify and correlate bidirectional or end-to-end paths in SR networks. This document defines procedures (i.e., six new Target Forwarding Equivalence Class (FEC) Stack sub-TLVs) for the use of LSP Ping to support connectivity verification and fault isolation for SR paths that include PSIDs. The mechanisms described enable the validation and tracing of SR paths with Path SIDs in MPLS networks, complementing existing SR-MPLS Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) capabilities.

This document specifies the use of Topology Independent Loop-Free Alternate (TI-LFA) mechanisms with Multicast-only Fast Reroute (MoFRR) for Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM). The TI-LFA provides Fast Reroute (FRR) protection for unicast traffic in IP networks by precomputing backup paths that avoid potential failures. By integrating TI-LFA with MoFRR, this document extends the benefits of FRR mechanisms to multicast traffic, enabling enhanced resilience and minimized packet loss in multicast networks. The document outlines an optional approach to implement TI-LFA in conjunction with MoFRR for PIM, ensuring that multicast traffic is rapidly rerouted in the event of a failure.

This document describes an architectural framework for MPLS Network Action (MNA) technologies. MNA technologies are used to indicate actions that impact the forwarding or other processing (such as monitoring) of the packet along the Label Switched Path (LSP) of the packet and to transfer any additional data needed for these actions.

This document provides the foundation for the development of a common set of network actions and information elements supporting additional operational models and capabilities of MPLS networks.

This document creates a new IANA registry (called the "Post-Stack First Nibble" registry) for the first nibble (4-bit field) immediately following an MPLS label stack. Furthermore, this document presents some requirements for registering new values and making the processing of MPLS packets easier and more robust.

The relationship between the IANA "Post-Stack First Nibble" registry and the "IP Version Numbers" registry (RFC 2780) is described in this document.

This document updates RFC 4928 by deprecating the heuristic method for identifying the type of packet encapsulated in MPLS.

This document presents use cases that have a common feature that may be addressed by encoding network action indicators and associated ancillary data within MPLS packets. There is community interest in extending the MPLS data plane to carry such indicators and ancillary data to address these use cases.

The use cases described in this document are not an exhaustive set but rather the ones that have been actively discussed by members of the IETF MPLS, PALS, and DetNet Working Groups from the beginning of work on MPLS Network Action (MNA) until the publication of this document.

This document describes procedures for using Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) for multipoint networks to detect data plane failures in point-to-multipoint MPLS Label Switched Paths (LSPs) and Segment Routing (SR) point-to-multipoint policies with an SR over MPLS (SR-MPLS) data plane.

Furthermore, this document updates RFC 8562 by recommending the use of an IPv6 address from the Dummy IPv6 Prefix address block 100:0:0:1::/64 and discouraging the use of an IPv4 loopback address mapped to IPv6.

In addition, this document describes the applicability of LSP Ping (as an in-band solution) and the control plane (as an out-of-band solution) to bootstrap a BFD session. The document also describes the behavior of the active tail for head notification.

This document specifies the application of the MPLS loss and delay measurement techniques (originally defined in RFCs 6374, 7876, and 9341) within Segment Routing (SR) networks that utilize the MPLS data plane, also referred to as Segment Routing over MPLS (SR-MPLS). SR enables the forwarding of packets through an ordered list of instructions, known as segments, which are imposed at the ingress node. This document defines the procedures and extensions necessary to perform accurate measurement of packet loss and delay in SR-MPLS environments, ensuring that network operators can effectively measure and maintain the quality of service across their SR-based MPLS networks. This includes coverage of links and end-to-end SR-MPLS paths, as well as SR Policies.

The RSVP-TE Fast Reroute (FRR) extensions specified in RFC 4090 define two local repair techniques to reroute Label Switched Path (LSP) traffic over pre-established backup tunnels. Facility backup method allows one or more LSPs traversing a connected link or node to be protected using a bypass tunnel. The many-to-one nature of local repair technique is attractive from a scalability point of view. This document enumerates facility backup procedures in RFC 4090 that rely on refresh timeout, hence, making facility backup method refresh-interval dependent. The RSVP-TE extensions defined in this document will enhance the facility backup protection mechanism by making the corresponding procedures refresh-interval independent, and hence, compatible with the Refresh-Interval Independent RSVP (RI-RSVP) capability specified in RFC 8370. Hence, this document updates RFC 4090 in order to support the RI-RSVP capability specified in RFC 8370.

This document defines the encapsulation for MPLS performance

measurement with the Alternate-Marking Method, which performs

flow-based packet loss, delay, and jitter measurements on MPLS

traffic.

The Segment Routing (SR) architecture leverages source routing and can be directly applied to the use of an MPLS data plane. A Segment Routing over MPLS (SR-MPLS) network may consist of multiple IGP domains or multiple Autonomous Systems (ASes) under the control of the same organization. It is useful to have the Label Switched Path (LSP) ping and traceroute procedures when an SR end-to-end path traverses multiple ASes or IGP domains. This document outlines mechanisms to enable efficient LSP ping and traceroute procedures in inter-AS and inter-domain SR-MPLS networks. This is achieved through a straightforward extension to the Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) protocol, relying solely on data plane forwarding for handling echo replies on transit nodes.

Satellite networks present some interesting challenges for packet networking. The entire topology is continually in motion, with links far less reliable than what is common in terrestrial networks. Some changes to link connectivity can be anticipated due to orbital dynamics.

This document proposes a scalable routing architecture for satellite networks based on existing routing protocols and mechanisms that is enhanced with scheduled link connectivity change information. This document proposes no protocol changes.

This document presents the author's view and is neither the product of the IETF nor a consensus view of the community.

This document defines two YANG modules. The first module is the initial version of the IANA-maintained YANG module for Maximum Segment Identifier (SID) Depth (MSD) Types, which includes identities for both the MPLS data plane and Segment Routing over IPv6 (SRv6) data plane. The second module augments the IETF MPLS YANG data model to provide support for MPLS MSDs as defined in RFCs 8476 and 8491.

Egress Peer Engineering (EPE) is an application of Segment Routing (SR) that solves the problem of egress peer selection. The SR-based BGP-EPE solution allows a centralized controller, e.g., a Software-Defined Network (SDN) controller, to program any egress peer. The EPE solution requires the node or the SDN controller to program 1) the PeerNode Segment Identifier (SID) describing a session between two nodes, 2) the PeerAdj SID describing the link or links that are used by the sessions between peer nodes, and 3) the PeerSet SID describing any connected interface to any peer in the related group. This document provides new sub-TLVs for EPE-SIDs that are used in the Target FEC Stack TLV (Type 1) in MPLS Ping and Traceroute procedures.

The MPLS ping and traceroute mechanisms described in RFC 8029 and the related extensions for Segment Routing (SR) defined in RFC 8287 are highly valuable for validating control plane and data plane synchronization. In certain environments, only some intermediate or transit nodes may have been upgraded to support these validation procedures. A straightforward MPLS ping and traceroute mechanism allows traversal of any path without validation of the control plane state. RFC 8029 supports this mechanism with the Nil Forwarding Equivalence Class (FEC). The procedures outlined in RFC 8029 are primarily applicable when the Nil FEC is used as an intermediate FEC in the FEC stack. However, challenges arise when all labels in the label stack are represented using the Nil FEC.

This document introduces a new Type-Length-Value (TLV) as an extension to the existing Nil FEC. It describes MPLS ping and traceroute procedures using the Nil FEC with this extension to address and overcome these challenges.

This document specifies requirements for the development of MPLS Network Actions (MNAs) that affect the forwarding or other processing of MPLS packets. These requirements are informed by a number of proposals for additions to the MPLS information in the labeled packet to allow such actions to be performed, either by a transit or terminating Label Switching Router (i.e., the Label Edge Router - LER).

Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) is expected to be able to monitor a wide variety of encapsulations of paths between systems. When a BFD session monitors an explicitly routed unidirectional path, there may be a need to direct the egress BFD peer to use a specific path for the reverse direction of the BFD session. This document describes an extension to the MPLS Label Switched Path (LSP) echo request that allows a BFD system to request that the remote BFD peer transmit BFD control packets over the specified LSP.

RFC 6374 describes methods of making loss and delay measurements on Label Switched Paths (LSPs) primarily as they are used in MPLS Transport Profile (MPLS-TP) networks. This document describes a method of extending the performance measurements (specified in RFC 6374) from flows carried over MPLS-TP to flows carried over generic MPLS LSPs. In particular, it extends the technique to allow loss and delay measurements to be made on multipoint-to-point LSPs and introduces some additional techniques to allow more sophisticated measurements to be made in both MPLS-TP and generic MPLS networks.

The MPLS echo request and MPLS echo response messages, defined in RFC 8029, "Detecting Multiprotocol Label Switched (MPLS) Data-Plane Failures" (usually referred to as LSP ping), are encapsulated in IP packets with headers that include a Router Alert Option (RAO). In actual deployments, the RAO was neither required nor used. Furthermore, RFC 6398 identifies security vulnerabilities associated with the RAO in non-controlled environments, e.g., the case of using the MPLS echo request/reply as inter-area Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM), and recommends against its use outside of controlled environments.

Therefore, this document retires the RAO for MPLS OAM and updates RFC 8029 to remove the RAO from LSP ping message encapsulations. Furthermore, this document explains why RFC 7506 has been reclassified as Historic.

Also, this document recommends the use of an IPv6 loopback address (::1/128) as the IPv6 destination address for an MPLS echo request message.

This document describes how the DetNet IP data plane can support the Packet Replication, Elimination, and Ordering Functions (PREOF) built on the existing MPLS PREOF solution defined for the DetNet MPLS data plane and the mechanisms defined by MPLS-over-UDP technology.

This document defines format and usage principles of the Deterministic Networking (DetNet) service Associated Channel over a DetNet network with the MPLS data plane. The DetNet service Associated Channel can be used to carry test packets of active Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) protocols that are used to detect DetNet failures and measure performance metrics.

A Segment Routing (SR) path is identified by an SR segment list. A subset of segments from the segment list cannot be leveraged to distinguish one SR path from another as they may be partially congruent. SR path identification is a prerequisite for various use cases such as performance measurement and end-to-end 1+1 path protection.

In an SR over MPLS (SR-MPLS) data plane, an egress node cannot determine on which SR path a packet traversed the network from the label stack because the segment identifiers are removed from the label stack as the packet transits the network.

This document defines a Path Segment Identifier (PSID) to identify an SR path on the egress node of the path.

Label Switched Path (LSP) Ping is a widely deployed Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) mechanism in MPLS networks. This document describes mechanisms for detecting data plane failures using LSP Ping in MPLS-based Ethernet VPN (EVPN) and Provider Backbone Bridging EVPN (PBB-EVPN) networks.

This document describes the integration of the Network Service Header (NSH) and Segment Routing (SR), as well as encapsulation details, to efficiently support Service Function Chaining (SFC) while maintaining separation of the service and transport planes as originally intended by the SFC architecture.

Combining these technologies allows SR to be used for steering packets between Service Function Forwarders (SFFs) along a given Service Function Path (SFP), whereas the NSH is responsible for maintaining the integrity of the service plane, the SFC instance context, and any associated metadata.

This integration demonstrates that the NSH and SR can work cooperatively and provide a network operator with the flexibility to use whichever transport technology makes sense in specific areas of their network infrastructure while still maintaining an end-to-end service plane using the NSH.

This document describes a generic format for use in echo request/reply mechanisms, which can be used within an IOAM-Domain, allowing the IOAM encapsulating node to discover the enabled IOAM capabilities of each IOAM transit and IOAM decapsulating node. The generic format is intended to be used with a variety of data planes such as IPv6, MPLS, Service Function Chain (SFC), and Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER).

This document describes how to extend the Path Computation Element Communication Protocol (PCEP) association mechanism introduced by RFC 8697 to further associate sets of Label Switched Paths (LSPs) with a higher-level structure such as a Virtual Network (VN) requested by a customer or application. This extended association mechanism can be used to facilitate control of a VN using the PCE architecture.

RFC 8231 describes a set of extensions to the Path Computation Element Communication Protocol (PCEP) to enable stateful control of MPLS-TE and GMPLS Label Switched Paths (LSPs) via PCEP. One of the extensions is the LSP object, which includes a Flag field with a length of 12 bits. However, all bits of the Flag field have already been assigned.

This document defines a new LSP-EXTENDED-FLAG TLV for the LSP object for an extended Flag field.

Segment Routing (SR) allows a node to steer a packet flow along any path. Intermediate per-path states are eliminated thanks to source routing. SR Policy is an ordered list of segments (i.e., instructions) that represent a source-routed policy. Packet flows are steered into an SR Policy on a node where it is instantiated called a headend node. The packets steered into an SR Policy carry an ordered list of segments associated with that SR Policy.

This document updates RFC 8402 as it details the concepts of SR Policy and steering into an SR Policy.

IANA has created "Protocol in the Segment ID Sub-TLV" and "Protocol in Label Stack Sub-TLV of Downstream Detailed Mapping TLV" registries under the "Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) Label Switched Paths (LSPs) Ping Parameters" registry. RFC 8287 defines the code points for Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) and Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS) protocols.

This document specifies the code point to be used in the Segment ID sub-TLV and Downstream Detailed Mapping (DDMAP) TLV when the Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) is OSPFv3. This document also updates RFC 8287 by clarifying that the existing "OSPF" code point is to be used only to indicate OSPFv2 and by defining the behavior when the Segment ID sub-TLV indicates the use of IPv6.

This document introduces new IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX) code points to identify which traffic is being forwarded based on which MPLS control plane protocol is used within a Segment Routing domain. In particular, this document defines five code points for the IPFIX mplsTopLabelType Information Element for Path Computation Element (PCE), IS-IS, OSPFv2, OSPFv3, and BGP MPLS Segment Routing extensions.

This document specifies the Deterministic Networking data plane when encapsulating IP over an MPLS packet-switched network.

Segment Routing (SR) allows for a flexible definition of end-to-end paths by encoding paths as sequences of topological subpaths, called "segments". These segments are advertised by routing protocols, e.g., by the link-state routing protocols (IS-IS, OSPFv2, and OSPFv3) within IGP topologies.

This document defines extensions to the Border Gateway Protocol - Link State (BGP-LS) address family in order to carry SR information via BGP.

This document updates RFCs 8029 and 8611, both of which define IANA registries for MPLS Label Switched Path (LSP) Ping. In particular, the registration procedure "Private Use" (previously known as "Vendor Private Use") has been changed to "First Come First Served" for the TLV and sub-TLV registries.

It also updates the description of the procedures for the responses sent when an unknown or erroneous code point is found. The updates are to clarify and align this namespace with recent developments, e.g., aligning terminology with RFC 8126 instead of the now obsoleted RFC 5226 (both titled "Guidelines for Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs").

This document defines Path Computation Element Communication Protocol (PCEP) extensions for grouping two unidirectional MPLS-TE Label Switched Paths (LSPs), one in each direction in the network, into an associated bidirectional LSP. These PCEP extensions can be applied either using a stateful PCE for both PCE-initiated and PCC-initiated LSPs or using a stateless PCE. The PCEP procedures defined are applicable to the LSPs using RSVP-TE for signaling.

This document specifies the Deterministic Networking data plane when Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) networks are interconnected over a DetNet MPLS network.

This document specifies the Deterministic Networking (DetNet) MPLS data plane when operating over an IEEE 802.1 Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) sub-network. This document does not define new procedures or processes. Whenever this document makes statements or recommendations, they are taken from normative text in the referenced RFCs.

This document defines three YANG data models. The first is for Segment Routing (SR) configuration and operation, which is to be augmented by different Segment Routing data planes. The next is a YANG data model that defines a collection of generic types and groupings for SR. The third module defines the configuration and operational states for the Segment Routing MPLS data plane.

This document specifies the MPLS Deterministic Networking (DetNet) data plane operation and encapsulation over an IP network. The approach is based on the operation of MPLS-over-UDP technology.

This document discusses and recommends terminology that may be used when MPLS Special-Purpose Labels (SPLs) are specified and documented.

This document applies that terminology change to the relevant IANA registry and also clarifies the use of the Entropy Label Indicator (7) when immediately preceded by the Extension Label (15).

This document updates RFCs 3032 and 7274.

This document introduces a simple mechanism to associate policies with a group of Label Switched Paths (LSPs) via an extension to the Path Computation Element Communication Protocol (PCEP). The extension allows a PCEP speaker to advertise to a PCEP peer that a particular LSP belongs to a particular Policy Association Group (PAG).

RFC 8372 ("MPLS Flow Identification Considerations") describes the requirement for introducing flow identities within the MPLS architecture. This document describes a method of accomplishing this by using a technique called "Synonymous Flow Labels" in which labels that mimic the behavior of other labels provide the identification service. These identifiers can be used to trigger per-flow operations on the packet at the receiving label switching router.

This document specifies the Deterministic Networking (DetNet) data plane when operating over an MPLS Packet Switched Network. It leverages existing pseudowire (PW) encapsulations and MPLS Traffic Engineering (MPLS-TE) encapsulations and mechanisms. This document builds on the DetNet architecture and data plane framework.

This document contains a specification of the MPLS base YANG data model. The MPLS base YANG data model serves as a base framework for configuring and managing an MPLS switching subsystem on an MPLS-enabled router. It is expected that other MPLS YANG data models (e.g., MPLS Label Switched Path (LSP) static, LDP, or RSVP-TE YANG data models) will augment the MPLS base YANG data model.

This document defines a set of extensions to the stateful PCE Communication Protocol (PCEP) to enable Label Switched Path (LSP) path computation, activation, setup, and deletion based on scheduled time intervals for the LSP and the actual network resource usage in a centralized network environment, as stated in RFC 8413.

This document introduces a simple mechanism to associate a group of Label Switched Paths (LSPs) via an extension to the Path Computation Element Communication Protocol (PCEP) with the purpose of computing diverse (disjointed) paths for those LSPs. The proposed extension allows a Path Computation Client (PCC) to advertise to a Path Computation Element (PCE) that a particular LSP belongs to a particular Disjoint Association Group; thus, the PCE knows that the LSPs in the same group need to be disjoint from each other.

This document updates RFC 4090 for the Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) Traffic Engineering (TE) procedures defined for facility backup protection. The updates include extensions that reduce the amount of signaling and processing that occurs during Fast Reroute (FRR); as a result, scalability when undergoing FRR convergence after a link or node failure is improved. These extensions allow the RSVP message exchange between the Point of Local Repair (PLR) and the Merge Point (MP) nodes to be independent of the number of protected Label Switched Paths (LSPs) traversing between them when facility bypass FRR protection is used. The signaling extensions are fully backwards compatible with nodes that do not support them.

An active stateful Path Computation Element (PCE) is capable of computing as well as controlling via Path Computation Element Communication Protocol (PCEP) Multiprotocol Label Switching Traffic Engineering (MPLS-TE) Label Switched Paths (LSPs). Furthermore, it is also possible for an active stateful PCE to create, maintain, and delete LSPs. This document defines the PCEP extension to associate two or more LSPs to provide end-to-end path protection.

A stateful Path Computation Element (PCE) retains information about the placement of Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) Traffic Engineering Label Switched Paths (TE LSPs). When a PCE has stateful control over LSPs, it may send indications to LSP head-ends to modify the attributes (especially the paths) of the LSPs. A Path Computation Client (PCC) that has set up LSPs under local configuration may delegate control of those LSPs to a stateful PCE.

There are use cases in which a stateful PCE may wish to obtain control of locally configured LSPs that it is aware of but have not been delegated to the PCE.

This document describes an extension to the Path Computation Element Communication Protocol (PCEP) to enable a PCE to make requests for such control.

The Path Computation Element Communication Protocol (PCEP) provides mechanisms for Path Computation Elements (PCEs) to perform path computations in response to Path Computation Client (PCC) requests. Stateful PCE extensions allow stateful control of MPLS-TE Label Switched Paths (LSPs) using PCEP.

The auto-bandwidth feature allows automatic and dynamic adjustment of the TE LSP bandwidth reservation based on the volume of traffic flowing through the LSP. This document describes PCEP extensions for auto-bandwidth adjustment when employing an active stateful PCE for both PCE-initiated and PCC-initiated LSPs.

This document introduces a generic mechanism to create a grouping of Label Switched Paths (LSPs) in the context of a Path Computation Element (PCE). This grouping can then be used to define associations between sets of LSPs or between a set of LSPs and a set of attributes (such as configuration parameters or behaviors), and it is equally applicable to the stateful PCE (active and passive modes) and the stateless PCE.

RFC 8287 defines the extensions to perform LSP Ping and Traceroute for Segment Routing IGP-Prefix and IGP-Adjacency Segment Identifiers (SIDs) with the MPLS data plane. RFC 8287 proposes three Target Forwarding Equivalence Class (FEC) Stack sub-TLVs. While RFC 8287 defines the format and procedure to handle those sub-TLVs, it does not sufficiently clarify how the length of the Segment ID sub-TLVs should be computed to be included in the Length field of the sub-TLVs. This ambiguity has resulted in interoperability issues.

This document updates RFC 8287 by clarifying the length of each of the Segment ID sub-TLVs defined in RFC 8287.

Segment Routing (SR) leverages the source-routing paradigm. A node steers a packet through a controlled set of instructions, called segments, by prepending the packet with an SR header. In the MPLS data plane, the SR header is instantiated through a label stack. This document specifies the forwarding behavior to allow instantiating SR over the MPLS data plane (SR-MPLS).

Segment Routing (SR) leverages the source-routing paradigm. A node steers a packet through an ordered list of instructions, called segments. Segment Routing can be applied to the Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) data plane. Entropy labels (ELs) are used in MPLS to improve load-balancing. This document examines and describes how ELs are to be applied to Segment Routing MPLS.

MPLS Segment Routing (SR-MPLS) is a method of source routing a packet through an MPLS data plane by imposing a stack of MPLS labels on the packet to specify the path together with any packet-specific instructions to be executed on it. SR-MPLS can be leveraged to realize a source-routing mechanism across MPLS, IPv4, and IPv6 data planes by using an MPLS label stack as a source-routing instruction set while making no changes to SR-MPLS specifications and interworking with SR-MPLS implementations.

This document describes how SR-MPLS-capable routers and IP-only routers can seamlessly coexist and interoperate through the use of SR-MPLS label stacks and IP encapsulation/tunneling such as MPLS-over-UDP as defined in RFC 7510.

Segment Routing (SR) allows a flexible definition of end-to-end paths within IGP topologies by encoding paths as sequences of topological subpaths called "segments". These segments are advertised by the link-state routing protocols (IS-IS and OSPF).

This document describes the OSPFv2 extensions required for Segment Routing.

Segment Routing (SR) allows a flexible definition of end-to-end paths within IGP topologies by encoding paths as sequences of topological subpaths called "segments". These segments are advertised by the link-state routing protocols (IS-IS and OSPF).

This document describes the OSPFv3 extensions required for Segment Routing with the MPLS data plane.

Segment Routing (SR) allows for a flexible definition of end-to-end paths within IGP topologies by encoding paths as sequences of topological sub-paths, called "segments". These segments are advertised by the link-state routing protocols (IS-IS and OSPF).

This document describes the IS-IS extensions that need to be introduced for Segment Routing operating on an MPLS data plane.

Segment Routing (SR) leverages the source-routing paradigm. A node steers a packet through an ordered list of instructions called "segments". A segment can represent any instruction, topological or service based. The ingress node prepends an SR header to a packet containing a set of segment identifiers (SIDs). Each SID represents a topological or service-based instruction. Per-flow state is maintained only on the ingress node of the SR domain. An "SR domain" is defined as a single administrative domain for global SID assignment.

This document defines an optional, transitive BGP attribute for announcing information about BGP Prefix Segment Identifiers (BGP Prefix-SIDs) and the specification for SR-MPLS SIDs.

This document specifies a fast reroute framework for protecting IP/MPLS services and MPLS transport tunnels against egress node and egress link failures. For each type of egress failure, it defines the roles of Point of Local Repair (PLR), protector, and backup egress router and the procedures of establishing a bypass tunnel from a PLR to a protector. It describes the behaviors of these routers in handling an egress failure, including local repair on the PLR and context-based forwarding on the protector. The framework can be used to develop egress protection mechanisms to reduce traffic loss before global repair reacts to an egress failure and control-plane protocols converge on the topology changes due to the egress failure.

When using Traffic Engineering (TE) in a dual-stack IPv4/IPv6 network, the Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) TE Label Switched Path (LSP) infrastructure may be duplicated, even if the destination IPv4 and IPv6 addresses belong to the same remote router. In order to achieve an integrated MPLS TE LSP infrastructure, OSPF routes must be computed over MPLS TE tunnels created using information propagated in another OSPF instance. This issue is solved by advertising cross-address family (X-AF) OSPF TE information.

This document describes an update to RFC 5786 that allows for the easy identification of a router's local X-AF IP addresses.

The Path Computation Element (PCE) has been identified as an appropriate technology for the determination of the paths of point- to-multipoint (P2MP) TE Label Switched Paths (LSPs). This document provides extensions required for the Path Computation Element Communication Protocol (PCEP) so as to enable the usage of a stateful PCE capability in supporting P2MP TE LSPs.

This document defines extensions to the MPLS Label Switched Path (LSP) Ping and Traceroute mechanisms as specified in RFC 8029. The extensions allow the MPLS LSP Ping and Traceroute mechanisms to discover and exercise specific paths of Layer 2 (L2) Equal-Cost Multipath (ECMP) over Link Aggregation Group (LAG) interfaces. Additionally, a mechanism is defined to enable the determination of the capabilities supported by a Label Switching Router (LSR).

This document updates RFC 8029.

This document describes how Service Function Chaining (SFC) can be achieved in an MPLS network by means of a logical representation of the Network Service Header (NSH) in an MPLS label stack. That is, the NSH is not used, but the fields of the NSH are mapped to fields in the MPLS label stack. This approach does not deprecate or replace the NSH, but it acknowledges that there may be a need for an interim deployment of SFC functionality in brownfield networks.

This document describes how to use a Service Function Forwarder (SFF) Label (similar to a pseudowire label or VPN label) to indicate the presence of a Service Function Chaining (SFC) Network Service Header (NSH) between an MPLS label stack and the packet original packet/ frame. This allows SFC packets using the NSH to be forwarded between SFFs over an MPLS network, and to select one of multiple SFFs in the destination MPLS node.

As the scale of MPLS RSVP-TE networks has grown, the number of Label Switched Paths (LSPs) supported by individual network elements has increased. Various implementation recommendations have been proposed to manage the resulting increase in the amount of control-plane state information.

However, those changes have had no effect on the number of labels that a transit Label Switching Router (LSR) has to support in the forwarding plane. That number is governed by the number of LSPs transiting or terminated at the LSR and is directly related to the total LSP state in the control plane.

This document defines a mechanism to prevent the maximum size of the label space limit on an LSR from being a constraint to control-plane scaling on that node. It introduces the notion of preinstalled 'per-TE link labels' that can be shared by MPLS RSVP-TE LSPs that traverse these TE links. This approach significantly reduces the forwarding-plane state required to support a large number of LSPs. This couples the feature benefits of the RSVP-TE control plane with the simplicity of the Segment Routing (SR) MPLS forwarding plane.

Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) association signaling can be used to bind two unidirectional Label Switched Paths (LSPs) into an associated bidirectional LSP. When an associated bidirectional LSP is co-routed, the reverse LSP follows the same path as its forward LSP. This document updates the fast reroute procedures defined in RFC 4090 to support both single-sided and double-sided provisioned associated bidirectional LSPs. This document also updates the procedure for associating two reverse LSPs defined in RFC 7551 to support co-routed bidirectional LSPs. The fast reroute procedures can ensure that, for the co-routed LSPs, traffic flows on co-routed paths in the forward and reverse directions after a failure event.

This memo defines a portion of the Management Information Base (MIB) for use with network management protocols in the Internet community. In particular, it describes two MIB modules that will be used by other MIB modules for monitoring and/or configuring Layer 2 and Layer 3 Virtual Private Networks that support multicast.

This memo defines a portion of the Management Information Base (MIB) for use with network management protocols in the Internet community. In particular, it describes managed objects to configure and/or monitor Multicast communication over IP Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) supported by the Multiprotocol Label Switching/Border Gateway Protocol (MPLS/BGP) on a Provider Edge (PE) router.

This document describes extensions to Resource Reservation Protocol - Traffic Engineering (RSVP-TE) for locally protecting the ingress node of a Point-to-Point (P2P) or Point-to-Multipoint (P2MP) Traffic Engineered (TE) Label Switched Path (LSP). It extends the Fast Reroute (FRR) protection for transit nodes of an LSP to the ingress node of the LSP. The procedures described in this document are experimental.

Operators are looking to introduce services over Segment Routing (SR) Label Switched Paths (LSPs) in networks running Resource Reservation Protocol - Traffic Engineering (RSVP-TE) LSPs. In some instances, operators are also migrating existing services from RSVP-TE to SR LSPs. For example, there might be certain services that are well suited for SR and need to coexist with RSVP-TE in the same network. Such introduction or migration of traffic to SR might require coexistence with RSVP-TE in the same network for an extended period of time, depending on the operator's intent. The following document provides solution options for keeping the traffic engineering database consistent across the network, accounting for the different bandwidth utilization between SR and RSVP-TE.

This document describes features of an MPLS path monitoring system and related use cases. Segment-based routing enables a scalable and simple method to monitor data-plane liveliness of the complete set of paths belonging to a single domain. The MPLS monitoring system adds features to the traditional MPLS ping and Label Switched Path (LSP) trace, in a very complementary way. MPLS topology awareness reduces management and control-plane involvement of Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) measurements while enabling new OAM features.

Time-Scheduled (TS) reservation of Traffic Engineering (TE) resources can be used to provide resource booking for TE Label Switched Paths so as to better guarantee services for customers and to improve the efficiency of network resource usage at any moment in time, including network usage that is planned for the future. This document provides a framework that describes and discusses the architecture for supporting scheduled reservation of TE resources. This document does not describe specific protocols or protocol extensions needed to realize this service.

This document specifies methods to interconnect multiple TRILL (Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links) sites with an intervening MPLS network using existing TRILL and VPLS (Virtual Private LAN Service) standards. This document addresses two problems: 1) providing connection between more than two TRILL sites that are separated by an MPLS provider network and 2) providing a single logical virtualized TRILL network for different tenants that are separated by an MPLS provider network.

This document describes extensions to Resource Reservation Protocol - Traffic Engineering (RSVP-TE) for locally protecting the egress node(s) of a Point-to-Point (P2P) or Point-to-Multipoint (P2MP) Traffic Engineered (TE) Label Switched Path (LSP).

This document discusses the usage and applicability of BGP MPLS-based Ethernet VPN (EVPN) in a simple and fairly common deployment scenario. The different EVPN procedures are explained in the example scenario along with the benefits and trade-offs of each option. This document is intended to provide a simplified guide for the deployment of EVPN networks.

When a link is being prepared to be taken out of service, the traffic needs to be diverted from both ends of the link. Increasing the metric to the highest value on one side of the link is not sufficient to divert the traffic flowing in the other direction.

It is useful for the routers in an OSPFv2 or OSPFv3 routing domain to be able to advertise a link as being in a graceful-shutdown state to indicate impending maintenance activity on the link. This information can be used by the network devices to reroute the traffic effectively.

This document describes the protocol extensions to disseminate graceful-link-shutdown information in OSPFv2 and OSPFv3.

This document discusses aspects to consider when developing a solution for MPLS flow identification. The key application that needs this solution is in-band performance monitoring of MPLS flows when MPLS is used to encapsulate user data packets.

Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER) is an architecture that provides optimal multicast forwarding through a "multicast domain", without requiring intermediate routers to maintain any per-flow state or to engage in an explicit tree-building protocol. When a multicast data packet enters the domain, the ingress router determines the set of egress routers to which the packet needs to be sent. The ingress router then encapsulates the packet in a BIER header. The BIER header contains a bit string in which each bit represents exactly one egress router in the domain; to forward the packet to a given set of egress routers, the bits corresponding to those routers are set in the BIER header. The details of the encapsulation depend on the type of network used to realize the multicast domain. This document specifies a BIER encapsulation that can be used in an MPLS network or, with slight differences, in a non-MPLS network.

A Segment Routing (SR) architecture leverages source routing and tunneling paradigms and can be directly applied to the use of a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) data plane. A node steers a packet through a controlled set of instructions called "segments" by prepending the packet with an SR header.

The segment assignment and forwarding semantic nature of SR raises additional considerations for connectivity verification and fault isolation for a Label Switched Path (LSP) within an SR architecture. This document illustrates the problem and defines extensions to perform LSP Ping and Traceroute for Segment Routing IGP-Prefix and IGP-Adjacency Segment Identifiers (SIDs) with an MPLS data plane.

Point-to-point Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) and Generalized MPLS (GMPLS) Traffic Engineering Label Switched Paths (TE LSPs) may be established using signaling techniques, but their paths may first need to be determined. The Path Computation Element (PCE) has been identified as an appropriate technology for the determination of the paths of point-to-multipoint (P2MP) TE LSPs.

This document describes extensions to the PCE Communication Protocol (PCEP) to handle requests and responses for the computation of paths for P2MP TE LSPs.

This document obsoletes RFC 6006.

This document specifies a set of procedures for using BGP to advertise that a specified router has bound a specified MPLS label (or a specified sequence of MPLS labels organized as a contiguous part of a label stack) to a specified address prefix. This can be done by sending a BGP UPDATE message whose Network Layer Reachability Information field contains both the prefix and the MPLS label(s) and whose Next Hop field identifies the node at which said prefix is bound to said label(s). This document obsoletes RFC 3107.

A stateful Path Computation Element (PCE) has access to not only the information disseminated by the network's Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) but also the set of active paths and their reserved resources for its computation. The additional Label Switched Path (LSP) state information allows the PCE to compute constrained paths while considering individual LSPs and their interactions. This requires a State Synchronization mechanism between the PCE and the network, the PCE and Path Computation Clients (PCCs), and cooperating PCEs. The basic mechanism for State Synchronization is part of the stateful PCE specification. This document presents motivations for optimizations to the base State Synchronization procedure and specifies the required Path Computation Element Communication Protocol (PCEP) extensions.

In certain networks, such as, but not limited to, financial information networks (e.g., stock market data providers), network performance criteria (e.g., latency) are becoming as critical to data path selection as other metrics and constraints. These metrics are associated with the Service Level Agreement (SLA) between customers and service providers. The link bandwidth utilization (the total bandwidth of a link in actual use for the forwarding) is another important factor to consider during path computation.

IGP Traffic Engineering (TE) Metric Extensions describe mechanisms with which network performance information is distributed via OSPF and IS-IS, respectively. The Path Computation Element Communication Protocol (PCEP) provides mechanisms for Path Computation Elements (PCEs) to perform path computations in response to Path Computation Client (PCC) requests. This document describes the extension to PCEP to carry latency, delay variation, packet loss, and link bandwidth utilization as constraints for end-to-end path computation.

This document specifies a new Generic Associated Channel (G-ACh) for Residence Time Measurement (RTM) and describes how it can be used by time synchronization protocols within an MPLS domain.

Residence time is the variable part of the propagation delay of timing and synchronization messages; knowing this delay for each message allows for a more accurate determination of the delay to be taken into account when applying the value included in a Precision Time Protocol event message.

The reoptimization of a Point-to-Multipoint (P2MP) Traffic Engineering (TE) Label Switched Path (LSP) may be triggered based on the need to reoptimize an individual source-to-leaf (S2L) sub-LSP or a set of S2L sub-LSPs, both using the Sub-Group-based reoptimization method, or the entire P2MP-TE LSP tree using the Make-Before-Break (MBB) method. This document discusses the application of the existing mechanisms for path reoptimization of loosely routed Point-to-Point (P2P) TE LSPs to the P2MP-TE LSPs, identifies issues in doing so, and defines procedures to address them. When reoptimizing a large number of S2L sub-LSPs in a tree using the Sub-Group-based reoptimization method, the S2L sub-LSP descriptor list may need to be semantically fragmented. This document defines the notion of a fragment identifier to help recipient nodes unambiguously reconstruct the fragmented S2L sub-LSP descriptor list.

This document describes a simple and efficient mechanism to detect data-plane failures in Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) Label Switched Paths (LSPs). It defines a probe message called an "MPLS echo request" and a response message called an "MPLS echo reply" for returning the result of the probe. The MPLS echo request is intended to contain sufficient information to check correct operation of the data plane and to verify the data plane against the control plane, thereby localizing faults.

This document obsoletes RFCs 4379, 6424, 6829, and 7537, and updates RFC 1122.

This document defines a limited common set of Diffserv Per-Hop Behaviors (PHBs) and Diffserv Codepoints (DSCPs) to be applied at (inter)connections of two separately administered and operated networks, and it explains how this approach can simplify network configuration and operation. Many network providers operate Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) using Treatment Aggregates for traffic marked with different Diffserv Per-Hop Behaviors and use MPLS for interconnection with other networks. This document offers a simple interconnection approach that may simplify operation of Diffserv for network interconnection among providers that use MPLS and apply the Short Pipe Model. While motivated by the requirements of MPLS network operators that use Short Pipe Model tunnels, this document is applicable to other networks, both MPLS and non-MPLS.

RFC 6374 defines a protocol for Packet Loss and Delay Measurement for MPLS networks (MPLS-PLDM). This document specifies the procedures to be used when sending and processing out-of-band MPLS performance management Responses over an UDP/IP return path.

This document defines procedures for using Seamless Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (S-BFD) in IPv4, IPv6, and MPLS environments.

Previous RFCs specify the procedures necessary to allow IP multicast traffic to travel from one site to another within a BGP/MPLS IP VPN (Virtual Private Network). However, it is sometimes desirable to allow multicast traffic whose source is in one VPN to be received by systems that are in another VPN. This is known as a "Multicast VPN (MVPN) extranet". This document updates RFCs 6513, 6514, and 6625 by specifying the procedures that are necessary in order to provide extranet MVPN service.

In certain networks, it is critical to consider network performance criteria when selecting the path for an explicitly routed RSVP-TE Label Switched Path (LSP). Such performance criteria can include latency, jitter, and loss or other indications such as the conformance to link performance objectives and non-RSVP TE traffic load. This specification describes how a path computation function may use network performance data, such as is advertised via the OSPF and IS-IS TE metric extensions (defined outside the scope of this document) to perform such path selections.

This document describes a BGP/MPLS IP VPN-based subnet extension solution referred to as "Virtual Subnet", which can be used for building Layer 3 network virtualization overlays within and/or between data centers.

This document clarifies the procedures for establishing, maintaining, and removing multiple, concurrent BFD (Bidirectional Forwarding Detection) sessions for a given <MPLS LSP, FEC> as described in RFC 5884.

When certain RSVP-TE optimizations are implemented, ingress Label Switching Router (LSRs) can receive RSVP RESV messages before forwarding state has been installed on all downstream nodes. According to the RSVP-TE specification, the ingress LSR can forward traffic through a Label Switched Path (LSP) as soon as it receives a RESV message. However, if the ingress LSR forwards traffic through the LSP before forwarding state has been installed on all downstream nodes, traffic can be lost.

This document describes LSP Self-ping. When an ingress LSR receives an RESV message, it can invoke LSP Self-ping procedures to ensure that forwarding state has been installed on all downstream nodes.

LSP Self-ping is a new protocol. It is not an extension of LSP Ping. Although LSP Ping and LSP Self-ping are named similarly, each is designed for a unique purpose. Each protocol listens on its own UDP port and executes its own procedures.

LSP Self-ping is an extremely lightweight mechanism. It does not consume control-plane resources on transit or egress LSRs.

The Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) Label Switched Path (LSP) Ping and Traceroute use the Reply Mode field to signal the method to be used in the MPLS echo reply. This document updates the procedures for the "Reply via Specified Path" Reply Mode. The value of this Reply Mode is 5. The update creates a simple way to indicate that the reverse LSP should be used as the return path. This document also adds an optional TLV that can carry an ordered list of Reply Mode values.

In some inter-AS (Autonomous System) and inter-area deployment scenarios for RFC 4379 ("Label Switched Path (LSP) Ping and Traceroute"), a replying Label Switching Router (LSR) may not have the available route to an initiator, and the Echo Reply message sent to the initiator would be discarded, resulting in false negatives or a complete failure of operation of the LSP Ping and Traceroute. This document describes extensions to the LSP Ping mechanism to enable the replying LSR to have the capability to relay the Echo Response by a set of routable intermediate nodes to the initiator. This document updates RFC 4379.

This document describes an IP/MPLS network that has an infrastructure that can be separated into two or more strata. For the implementation described in this document, the infrastructure has been separated into two strata: one for the "Hard Pipes", called the "Hard Pipe Stratum", and one for the normal IP/MPLS traffic, called the "Normal IP/MPLS Stratum".

This document introduces the concept of a Hard Pipe -- an MPLS Label Switched Path (LSP) or a pseudowire (PW) with a bandwidth that is guaranteed and can neither be exceeded nor infringed upon.

The Hard Pipe stratum does not use statistical multiplexing; for the LSPs and PWs set up within this stratum, the bandwidth is guaranteed end to end.

The document does not specify any new protocol or procedures. It does explain how the MPLS standards implementation has been deployed and operated to meet the requirements from operators that offer traditional Virtual Leased Line (VLL) services.

This document defines a means of remotely initiating Multiprotocol Label Switched Protocol (MPLS) Pings on Label Switched Paths. An MPLS Proxy Ping Request is sent to any Label Switching Router along a Label Switched Path. The primary motivations for this facility are first to limit the number of messages and related processing when using LSP Ping in large Point-to-Multipoint LSPs, and second to enable tracing from leaf to leaf (or root).

This document describes procedures for building inter-area point-to-multipoint (P2MP) segmented service label switched paths (LSPs) by partitioning such LSPs into intra-area segments and using BGP as the inter-area routing and Label Distribution Protocol (LDP). Within each IGP area, the intra-area segments are either carried over intra-area P2MP LSPs, using P2MP LSP hierarchy, or instantiated using ingress replication. The intra-area P2MP LSPs may be signaled using P2MP RSVP-TE or P2MP multipoint LDP (mLDP). If ingress replication is used within an IGP area, then (multipoint-to-point) LDP LSPs or (point-to-point) RSVP-TE LSPs may be used in the IGP area. The applications/services that use such inter-area service LSPs may be BGP Multicast VPN, Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) multicast, or global table multicast over MPLS.

This document describes Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) extensions to bind two point-to-point unidirectional Label Switched Paths (LSPs) into an associated bidirectional LSP. The association is achieved by defining new Association Types for use in ASSOCIATION and in Extended ASSOCIATION Objects. One of these types enables independent provisioning of the associated bidirectional LSPs on both sides, while the other enables single-sided provisioning. The REVERSE_LSP Object is also defined to enable a single endpoint to trigger creation of the reverse LSP and to specify parameters of the reverse LSP in the single-sided provisioning case.

RFC 4379 defines the MPLS Label Switched Path (LSP) Ping/Traceroute mechanism in which the Router Alert Option (RAO) MUST be set in the IP header of the MPLS Echo Request messages and may conditionally be set in the IP header of the MPLS Echo Reply messages depending on the Reply Mode used. While a generic "Router shall examine packet" Option Value is used for the IPv4 RAO, there is no generic RAO value defined for IPv6 that can be used. This document allocates a new, generic IPv6 RAO value that can be used by MPLS Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) tools, including the MPLS Echo Request and MPLS Echo Reply messages for MPLS in IPv6 environments. Consequently, it updates RFC 4379.

The initial motivation to request an IPv6 RAO value for MPLS OAM comes from the MPLS LSP Ping/Traceroute. However, this value is applicable to all MPLS OAM and not limited to MPLS LSP Ping/ Traceroute.

This document specifies an IP-based encapsulation for MPLS, called MPLS-in-UDP for situations where UDP (User Datagram Protocol) encapsulation is preferred to direct use of MPLS, e.g., to enable UDP-based ECMP (Equal-Cost Multipath) or link aggregation. The MPLS- in-UDP encapsulation technology must only be deployed within a single network (with a single network operator) or networks of an adjacent set of cooperating network operators where traffic is managed to avoid congestion, rather than over the Internet where congestion control is required. Usage restrictions apply to MPLS-in-UDP usage for traffic that is not congestion controlled and to UDP zero checksum usage with IPv6.

This document describes procedures for BGP MPLS-based Ethernet VPNs (EVPN). The procedures described here meet the requirements specified in RFC 7209 -- "Requirements for Ethernet VPN (EVPN)".

The BGP Entropy Label Capability attribute is defined in RFC 6790. Regrettably, it has a bug: although RFC 6790 mandates that routers incapable of processing Entropy Labels must remove the attribute, fulfillment of this requirement cannot be guaranteed in practice. This specification deprecates the attribute. A forthcoming document will propose a replacement.

LSP-Ping is a widely deployed Operation, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) mechanism in MPLS networks. However, in the present form, this mechanism is inadequate to verify connectivity of a segment of a Multi-Segment Pseudowire (MS-PW) and/or bidirectional co-routed Label Switched Path (LSP) from any node on the path of the MS-PW and/or bidirectional co-routed LSP. This document defines a TLV to address this shortcoming.

This document describes an Ethernet-Tree (E-Tree) solution framework for supporting the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) E-Tree service over a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) network. The objective is to provide a simple and effective approach to emulate E-Tree services in addition to Ethernet LAN (E-LAN) services on an existing MPLS network.

The ability to compute paths for constrained point-to-multipoint (P2MP) Traffic Engineering Label Switched Paths (TE LSPs) across multiple domains has been identified as a key requirement for the deployment of P2MP services in MPLS- and GMPLS-controlled networks. The Path Computation Element (PCE) has been recognized as an appropriate technology for the determination of inter-domain paths of P2MP TE LSPs.

This document describes an experiment to provide procedures and extensions to the PCE Communication Protocol (PCEP) for the computation of inter-domain paths for P2MP TE LSPs.

MPLS Traffic Engineering (MPLS-TE) advertises 32 administrative groups (commonly referred to as "colors" or "link colors") using the Administrative Group sub-TLV. This is defined for OSPFv2 (RFC 3630), OSPFv3 (RFC 5329) and IS-IS (RFC 5305).

This document adds a sub-TLV to the IGP TE extensions, "Extended Administrative Group". This sub-TLV provides for additional administrative groups (link colors) beyond the current limit of 32.

This document describes the Connectivity Provisioning Profile (CPP) and proposes a CPP template to capture IP/MPLS connectivity requirements to be met within a service delivery context (e.g., Voice over IP or IP TV). The CPP defines the set of IP transfer parameters to be supported by the underlying transport network together with a reachability scope and bandwidth/capacity needs. Appropriate performance metrics, such as one-way delay or one-way delay variation, are used to characterize an IP transfer service. Both global and restricted reachability scopes can be captured in the CPP.

Such a generic CPP template is meant to (1) facilitate the automation of the service negotiation and activation procedures, thus accelerating service provisioning, (2) set (traffic) objectives of Traffic Engineering functions and service management functions, and (3) improve service and network management systems with 'decision- making' capabilities based upon negotiated/offered CPPs.

This document specifies a framework to integrate a Network Address Translation (NAT) layer into an operator's network to function as a Carrier-Grade NAT (also known as CGN or Large-Scale NAT). The CGN infrastructure will often form a NAT444 environment as the subscriber home network will likely also maintain a subscriber-side NAT function. Exhaustion of the IPv4 address pool is a major driver compelling some operators to implement CGN. Although operators may wish to deploy IPv6 to strategically overcome IPv4 exhaustion, near- term needs may not be satisfied with an IPv6 deployment alone. This document provides a practical integration model that allows the CGN platform to be integrated into the network, meeting the connectivity needs of the subscriber while being mindful of not disrupting existing services and meeting the technical challenges that CGN brings. The model included in this document utilizes BGP/MPLS IP VPNs, which allow for virtual routing separation, helping ease the CGN's impact on the network. This document does not intend to defend the merits of CGN.

The MPLS Generic Associated Channel (G-ACh) provides an auxiliary logical data channel associated with a Label Switched Path (LSP), a pseudowire, or a section (link) over which a variety of protocols may flow. These protocols are commonly used to provide Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) mechanisms associated with the primary data channel. This document specifies simple procedures by which an endpoint of an LSP, pseudowire, or section may inform the other endpoints of its capabilities and configuration parameters, or other application-specific information. This information may then be used by the receiver to validate or adjust its local configuration, and by the network operator for diagnostic purposes.

Some MPLS labels have been allocated for specific purposes. A block of labels (0-15) has been set aside to this end; these labels are commonly called "reserved labels". They will be called "special-purpose labels" in this document.

As there are only 16 of these special-purpose labels, caution is needed in the allocation of new special-purpose labels; yet, at the same time, forward progress should be allowed when one is called for.

This memo defines new procedures for the allocation and retirement of special-purpose labels, as well as a method to extend the special-purpose label space and a description of how to handle extended special-purpose labels in the data plane. Finally, this memo renames the IANA registry for special-purpose labels to "Special-Purpose MPLS Label Values" and creates a new registry called the "Extended Special-Purpose MPLS Label Values" registry.

This document updates a number of previous RFCs that use the term "reserved label". Specifically, this document updates RFCs 3032, 3038, 3209, 3811, 4182, 4928, 5331, 5586, 5921, 5960, 6391, 6478, and 6790.

RFC 5586 generalized the applicability of the pseudowire Associated Channel Header (PW-ACH) into the Generic Associated Channel G-ACh. However, registries and allocations of G-ACh parameters had been distributed throughout different, sometimes unrelated, registries. This document coalesces these into a new "Generic Associated Channel (G-ACh) Parameters" registry under the "Multiprotocol Label Switching Architecture (MPLS)" heading. This document updates RFC 5586.

This document also updates RFCs 6374, 6378, 6427, and 6428.

This document provides a set of requirements for Advanced Multipath in MPLS networks.

Advanced Multipath is a formalization of multipath techniques currently in use in IP and MPLS networks and a set of extensions to existing multipath techniques.

This document provides functional requirements for the support of Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) Ethernet Tree (E-Tree) in multipoint Layer 2 Virtual Private Network solutions (referred to as simply "L2VPN"). It is intended that potential solutions will use these requirements as guidelines.

This document defines extensions to the data-plane failure-detection protocol for Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) Label Switched Paths (LSPs) known as "LSP ping". These extensions allow a selection of the LSP to be used for the echo reply return path. Enforcing a specific return path can be used to verify bidirectional connectivity and also increase LSP ping robustness.

The framework for Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) within the MPLS Transport Profile (MPLS-TP) describes how the Maintenance Entity Group Intermediate Points (MIPs) may be situated within network nodes at incoming and outgoing interfaces.

This document elaborates on important considerations for internal MIP addressing. More precisely, it describes important restrictions for any mechanism that specifies a way of forming OAM messages so that they can be targeted at MIPs on either incoming or outgoing interfaces and forwarded correctly through the forwarding engine. Furthermore, the document includes considerations for node implementations where there is no distinction between the incoming and outgoing MIP.

With BGP/MPLS Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), providing any-to-any connectivity among sites of a given VPN would require each Provider Edge (PE) router connected to one or more of these sites to hold all the routes of that VPN. The approach described in this document allows the VPN service provider to reduce the number of PE routers that have to maintain all these routes by requiring only a subset of these routers to maintain all these routes.

Furthermore, when PE routers use ingress replication to carry the multicast traffic of VPN customers, the approach described in this document may, under certain circumstances, reduce bandwidth inefficiency associated with ingress replication and redistribute the replication load among PE routers.