Chapter 4. Cisco MPLS Traffic Engineering

In this chapter, you learn the following topics:

This chapter provides an overview of the Multiprotocol Label Switching Protocol Traffic Engineering (MPLS TE) implementation and configuration in Cisco products. This overview includes details about algorithms and configuration commands. The material includes simple configuration examples to illustrate the use of the commands. The material in this chapter assumes that you are already familiar with the technology aspects of MPLS TE. Chapter 2, "MPLS TE Technology Overview", includes a technology overview that you can use as a reference.

Cisco IOS and IOS XR provide a comprehensive MPLS TE implementation. You can deploy MPLS TE on networks running Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) or Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS). Various mechanisms are available to forward traffic down a traffic engineering label switched path (TE LSP). Cisco MPLS TE also provides support for Differentiated Services (DiffServ)-aware traffic engineering (DS-TE) and fast reroute (FRR). The section "Basic Operation of MPLS TE" describes how to enable MPLS TE, use your interior gateway protocol (IGP) to distribute TE link information, perform constraint-based routing, signal TE LSPs, and select the traffic that the TE LSP will carry. The section "DiffServ-Aware Traffic Engineering" describes TE-Classes and bandwidth constraints and discusses the steps to signal DS-TE LSPs and the commands to verify the proper operation. The section "Fast Reroute" presents the configuration of link, node, and bandwidth protection.

For further details about Cisco MPLS TE, see the book Traffic Engineering with MPLS(Cisco Press) or consult the software documentation available at Cisco.com.