Chapter 2. MPLS TE Technology Overview

In this chapter, you review the following topics:

• MPLS TE Introduction

• Basic Operation of MPLS TE

• DiffServ-Aware Traffic Engineering

• Fast Reroute

This chapter presents a review of Multiprotocol Label Switching Traffic Engineering (MPLS TE) technology. MPLS TE can play an important role in the implementation of network services with quality of service (QoS) guarantees. The initial sections describe the basic operation of the technology. This description includes the details of TE information distribution, path computation, and the signaling of TE LSPs. The subsequent sections present how Differentiated Services (DiffServ)-Aware traffic engineering (DS-TE) helps integrate the implementation of DiffServ and MPLS TE. This chapter closes with a review of the fast reroute (FRR) capabilities in MPLS TE. Chapter 4,"Cisco MPLS Traffic Engineering," covers in depth the Cisco implementation of MPLS TE in Cisco IOS and Cisco IOS XR. In addition, Chapter 5,"Backbone Infrastructure," discusses the different network designs that can combine QoS with MPLS TE.