This course is designed to introduce you to Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) concepts, installation, migration, operation, inspection, and troubleshooting. You learn about VPN technology issues involving MPLS from the service provider perspective and how to configure some of those features and functions in an existing routed environment. In addition, you will be given a basic introduction to some of the more updated features and functions, such as traffic engineering, Fast Reroute, and Any Transport over MPLS (AToM).
You also gain knowledge of the MPLS high-performance method for forwarding packets through a network, which enables routers at the network edge to apply simple labels to packets, allowing the edge devices, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switches, or existing routers in the center of the service provider core to switch packets according to labels, with minimal lookup overhead. Finally, you learn how MPLS integrates the performance and traffic-management capabilities of data-link Layer 2 with the scalability and flexibility of network Layer 3 routing. When used together with other standard technologies, MPLS provides service providers the ability to support value-added features that are critical for their networks.
After completing this course, you should be able to:
● Describe the basic features and benefits of MPLS
● Identify MPLS terms such as label switch router (LSR) and label switched path, and identify upstream path and downstream path by function
● Describe the architecture of an MPLS ingress edge LSR, intermediate LSR, and egress edge LSR