EIGRP

Capabilities and Attributes

Fast convergance-EIGRP uses DUAL to achieve rapid convergance. Routers that run EIGRP stores its routing tables so that it quickly adapt to changes in the network. If no route exists in the local routing table, and no backup route exists in the topology table, EIGRP will query its neighbors to find an alternate route. Partial triggered updates are used by EIGRP instead of periodic updates. Partial updates are only triggerd when there has been a change in a paths metric. Only information about the link is sent and not the whole routing table. They are bounded to only the routers that are affected, thus reducing the amount of bandwidth used. Multiple Network Layer support- IPv4,IPv6, Apple Talk, and Novell Netware Packet Exchange (IPX) is supported via the use of protocol dependant modules. EIGRP's use of a sophistacated metric and rapid convergance makes it a stable platform for the formentioned networks. Use of multicast and unicast for the communication between routers rather than broadcast. End stations are unaffected by routing updates or queries. EIGRP uses the multicast address of 224.0.0.10 Support for VLSM and the use of discontenious subnetworks. Seamless connectivity across all data link layer protocols and topologiesEIGRP does not require special configuration to work across any layer 2 protocols, unlike OSPF that need different layer 2 protocols such as ethernet and frame relay. EIGRP can opperate effectively in both WAN and LAN enviorments. Multicasting is used by EIGRP in multi-access topologies such as ethernet to form neighbors. EIGRP supports all WAN topolgies: dedicated links, point-to-point, and nonbroadcast multiaccess (NBMA) topologies. Acccomadates differances in media types and speeds when adjacencies are formed accross WAN links. Te bandwidth that EIGRP uses can be limited accross WAN links. Sophisticated metric- uses the same algorithm as IGRP, but expanded to 32 bits instead of 24 that is multiplied by 256 to give greater granularity. Also supports unequal metric load balancing allowing better distribution of traffic flow in networks. Like other routing protocols EIGRP relies on IP packets to deliver routing information. EIGRP routing process are a transport layer function.

EIGRP uses the protocol number 88 in IP headers. Performs auto-summerization at major network boundaries, that can also be turned off. Administraters can configure manual summerization on arbitary bit boundries, as long as there is a more specific route in the routing table. Also supports the creation of suppernets or aggrigated blocks of address EIGRP supports hierarchical addressing that enables summerization of address. However EIGRP also supports nonhierarchical IP addressing. EIGRP uses for key technologies that combine to differentiate it from other routing technologies. Neighbor discovery/recovery mechanism- that enables routers to dynamically learn about other routers on attatched networks. Also routers must discover when a neighbor router becomes unreachable. This done by sending out small hello packets periodically. As long as as router recieves one of these hello packets it assumes that the router that sent is still functioning and thus exchange routing information. Reliable Transport Protocol (RTP) that is responsible for guaranteeing ordered delivery of EIGRP pavckets to all neighbors. Supports intermixed transmission of multicast or unicast packets. Only certain types of EIGRP packets are transmitted relibly due to efficiancy issues. For example it is not necessery o send hello packets reliably to all neighbors individually. Single multicast hello packets are sent that contain an indicator to informs the recieveres that the packet need not be acknowlaged. DUAL finite-state machine-embodies the decision process for all route computations, tracks all routes advertised by all neighbors using distance information. This is known as the composit metric or cost that allows the selection of efficient loop free paths to all destinations. Protocol-dependant modules are responsible for network-layer protocol specific requirments. Each protocol such as IPX or Apple talk has its own EIGRP module that runs indipendantly from any other module that is running. IP-EIGRP is also responsible parsing packets and informing DUAL of of the information that has been recieved. DAL is then asked to make routing decisions that are then stored in the routing table. EIGRP Terminology Neighbor table- When EIGRP discover neighbors by using hello packets, an adjacency is formed. The neighbors address and the interface that through which it can be reached is entred in the neighbor table. The

neighbor table ensures bidirectional communication between each of the directly connected neighbors. A neighbor table is kept by EIGRP for each protocol supported. For example there could be a neighbor table for IPX, IPv6 or an Apple Talk. Topology Table- When a router dynamically discovers a new neighbor, it sends an update about what routes it knows to to its new neighbor and recives the same from its new neighbor. These updates populat the topology table. All advertised destinations by neighboring routers are contained in the topology table. Advertised Distance and feasible distance-Dual uses distance info known as a metric or cost to select a efficiant loop-free paths. Lowest cost paths are calculated by adding the cost between the next hop router and the destination rthat is refered to as the AD to the cost between the local router and the next hop router. The sum of these costs is referred as the feasible distance (FD). Successor is also known as the currant successor is a neighboring router that has a least cost path to a destination that is guaranteed to be loop free. Successors are offered to the routing table. Multiple succesors can exist if they have the same FD. Routing table holds the best routes to each destination and used for farwarding packets. If a router has more than one route offered to the same destination it uses AD to determine which offered route to keep in the routing table. Each protocol can keep upto 4 routes to the same destinaition with the same metric by default. A router can be programed to accept upto 16 per destination. A router maintains one routing table for each protocol. Feasible successor DUAL keeps backup paths to each destination known as the feasible distance. A feasible successor is a neighbor that is closer to the destination, but is not in the least cost path. To qualify as a FS a next hop router must AD less than the FD of the current successor route. This ensures a loop free topology. EIGRP Operation Populting EIGRP Tables EIGRP selects sucessor and feasible successors routes and marked in the topology table before moving the successor route to the routing table. Several types of routes are supported by EIGRP: internal, external, and summary. External routes are learned from another routing protocol or anther EIGRP autonomouse system. Summary routes are routes

encompassing multiple subnets. The neighbor table list adjacent routers. includes the address of each neighbor and the interfaces through which it can be reached. Includes information required by RTP. Sequence numbers tha match AKS are used to match acknowledgments with data packets to detect out of order packets, tha last being recorded. Transmission lists are used to que packets for possible re-transmission on per neighbor basis. The topology contains the best route (succssor route) to each destination. Each EIGRP router forward a copy of its IP routing tables to all its adjacent EIGRP neighbors. Each router strores the routing table in its topology table data base. Topology tables maintains the metric that each neighbor advertises for each destination (AD). and the metric that this router would use to reach the destination via that neighjbor (FD). The show ip eigrp topology all links command displays all the ip entries in the topology table while the show ip eigrp topology comand displays only successors and feasible successors. the topology table is updated when there is a changees to a neighboring router. A topology table entry can be in one of two states, passsive or active. Passive state is a stable staate where thare are no recomputations of a route. Active state denotes a state where there is no other route to a destination in the topology table. This means that a router is looking for a new successor. This can effect convergance times. If a neighboring router has a route to a destination, it will send a reply packet. If it does not it will send a query to another router. This will go on until a route is found. Routing Table- EIGRP sends out five differant types of packets: Hello- packets are used for neighbor discovery and are sent as multicast. They do not require AKS. They cary an ACK number of 0. Update packets contain route change info. Updates are only sent to effected routers and sent as multicasts when a new route is discoverd. The synchronization of topology tables is done with the use of unicast to neighbors during their EIGRP setup sequence. Update packets are sent reliably. Reply packets are sent in responce to a query packet, and are unicast to to the originator of the query and are sent reliably. ACK are used to acknowledge updates, queries, and replies. ACK packets are unicast hello packets that contain a non zero ack number. EIGRP hello packets are sent using the EIGRP multicast address 224.0.0.10

The time interval of hello packets varies depending o the medium. By default they are sent every 60 seconds on a T! or slower NBMA interfaces, or every 5 seconds on other serial interfaces and on LANs. Hello timers can be alterd to suit using the ip hello-interval eigrp as-num. Also included are the hold time, that indicates the amount of time a router is considers a neighbor router up without recieving a hello or some other EIGRP packet from a neighbor. The hold time interval is set by default to three times the hello interval. his will be 15 seconds on a LAN 180 seconds on a fast WAn interface. Hold timers can be adjusted with the ip hold-time eigrp as-num seconds command. If a packet is not recieved befor the expiration of the hold time, the neighbor adjacency is deleted, and the topology table entries learned from the neighbor is removed and recomputations are performed to find alternate paths. EIGRP Neighbors-tWO EIGRP ROUTERS BECOME NEIGHBORS EVEN IF HELLO AND HOLD TIME VALUES DO NOT MATCH. hELLO INTERVALS AND HOLD TIME VALUES CAN BE SET INDIPENDANTLY on differant routers. secondry address can be applised to interfaces to solve particular addressing issues. EIGRP will not form peers using secondry because all eigrp traffic uses the interfaces primary address that are part of the same ip subnet. Peer relationships can not be formed if a neighbor resides in another EIGRP autonomouse system or if the the metric-calculation mechinism constants (k values ) are misaligned on that link. Neighbor table contents-EIGRP routers multicast hello packets to disover nighbors and form adjacencies. Only adjacent routers exchange routing information and then build a neighbor table from EIGRP neighbors that are running the same network layer protocol. Neighbor tables include the following key eliments: H-handle is a number that is used internally by CISCO ios to track neighbors in the order in which peering sessions were established starting with 0. interface through which it is reciveing hello packets and through which the neighbor can be reached. Hold time which is the maximum time in seconds that arouter waits to hear from a neighbor wthout recieving anything from a neighbor befor considering the link to be unavailable. Uptime is the elapsed time, in hours, minuets and seconds since the local router first heard from the neighbor. Smooth round trip timer-SRTT is the average number of milliseconds that

the router takes for an EIGRP to be sent to this neighbor and foer a local router to recieve an ACK retransmit timer (RTO). RTO the amount odf time in milliseconds that a router waits for an ACK before retransmitting a reliable packet from the retransmision que to a neighbor. Queue (Q) count is the number of EIGRP packets (update,query, and reply) waiting in the que to be sent out If constantly higher than 0 a congestion problem may exist. A 0 indicates that there are no EIGRP packets in the que Seq Num is the number of the last update, query or reply that was recieved from a neighbor. EIGRP reliability mechanisms ensure delivery of critical routing info to neighboring routers. Up DATE, QUERY AND REPLY packets are sent reliably with a sequence number for which a an ACK is required for that sequence number. RTP is responsible for guaranteed orderd delivery. RTP support intermixed transmission of multicast and unicast packets. RTP also ensures omgoing communication is maintained between neighboring routers. A retransmission list is maintained for each neighbor that indicates packets not yet acknowleged by a neighbor within the RTO. If RTO expires befor an ACK packet is recieved EIgrp retransmits another copy of the reliable packet upto a max of 16 time or until the hold time expires.Reliable multicast packets cannot be transmited untill all peers have ACK the previous multicast. Nieghbors that are slow to respond to multicast will have packets retransmited as unicasts that will alow multicast operation tp proceesd without delay. The multicast flow timer seen by using the show ip eigrp interfaces command determines how long to wait between for an ACK before switching to unicast. In a steady state network where no routes are flapping, eigrp waits the specified hold-time interval before determining that the neighbore is down. 180 seconds may seem excesive but accomadates slower links connected to less critical remote sites. Even 15 seconds can seem to long on mission critical sites such as ip telephony. It is to be rememberd that other conditions can canb overide the the hold time and allow the network to converge more quickly. EG if a network is unstable wth routes that are flapping because a remote site is timeing out on its adjacency, EIGRP hold timers start counting down from 180 secs When upstream site sends the remote site an update, and the remote site does not ACK the update, the upstream site attempts 16 times to retransmit the update. Dual-Diffusing Update Algorithm a finaite-stae machine that selects which

info is storewd in the topology table. It tracks all routes advertised bt the neighbors, uses the metric to select an efficiant loop-free path to each destination, and inserts that choice in the routing table. Advertised distance and feesible distance. is used only to calculate the FD The AD is the EIGRP metric for an EIGRP neighbor router to reach a perticulat network. The AD A router compares all FDs to reach a specific network in its topology table. The route with lowest FD is offerd to the routing table, and is known as the successor. EIGRP metric is the least bandwidth plus the accumalated delays. EIGRP metric for a network is the same as its FD in the EIGRP topology table. The next hop address in the routing table is the same as the successor in the EIGRP topology table. All ip routing protocols csn install only the next hop router info in its routing table. the hop by hop path through a network goes from one router to the next. Routers trust a routes o the currant successors (the next best hop router) to send traffic toward that destination address. Routing tables are essentially is subset of the topology table that contains more details about each route and backup routes and used by DUAL. An FS is a router that provides a backup route and must be loop free, a\nd must not loop back to the cureant successor. A fS must have an AD less than the FD. This known as the feasibilty condition, ensuring that the FS cannot use a route through the local router. EIGRP Metric calculation DUAL selects routes based on the EIGRP composit metric. Five criteria are accosiated with the EIGRP composit metric. Bandwidth- the smallest (slowest) bandwidth between the source and destination. Note- For serila link's,the bandwidth may be specified for the purpose of sending routing update traffic on the link. If you do not define the bandwidth value for these interfaces, EIGRP assumes that the bandwidth on the link is the default, which varies with interface type. EIGRP uses bandwidth as part of its metric calculation. If the link is actually slowere than the default, the router might not be able to converge, or routing updates might be lost For generic serial interfaces such as PPP and HDLC, set the bandwidth to match the line speed. For Frame relay point to point interfaces set the bandwidth to the commited information rate (CIR). For Frame relay multipoint connectionsset the bandwidth to the sum of all CIRs, or if the the perminant virtual circuits (PVCs) have differant CIRs, set the bandwidth to the lowest CIR multiplied by the number of PVCs on the multipoint connection.

Delay the cumaltive interface delay along the path The next 3 criteria are available but not commonly used. Reliability- the worst reliabilty between the source and destination based on keepalives. Loading- The worst load on a link between the source and destination based on the packet rate and the interfaces configured bandwiidth. Maximum transmissiom unit (MTU)- The smallest MTU in the path. MTU is contained in an eigrp updat but not used. EIGRP calculates metric by adding together weighted values of differant variables of the path To THe neTwork in question. The default constant weight values of differant varibles (kvalues).

Planning EIGRP implementations When preparing to deploy EIGRP networks, you need to gather requirements and determine the existing network state to consider the different deployment options, That include the following. Ip addressing plan that governs how EIGRP can be deployed, and how well the EIGRP deployment will scale. Detailed IP subnet and addressing plan must be produced, and should be hierachical to enable EIGRP summarization. Network topology consists of the devices and links connecting them. Deatailed topology of the network must be created to test the scalability of the network. EIGRP traffic engineering- by changing the intewrface metrics, EIGRP traffic engineering can be deployed to improve bandwidth utilization and enable the administrator to have control over traffic patterns. Implimentation plan The ip address to be configured on individual router interfaces. The EIGRP autonomouse system number, used to enable EIGRP. Must be the same on all routers. List of routers on which EIGRP is to be enabled along with connected networks that are to run EIGRP.

Metrics that need to be applied to specific interfaces, for EIGRP traffic engineering. The required metric and the interfaces where the metric needs to be applied should be specified. The implimentation plan will have a list of tasks for each router in the network , and must be defined. Verifying the EIGRP neighbor relationships Verifying that the EIGRP topology table is populated with the necessary information. veryfying that IP routing tableis populated wth necessary info Veryfying that there is connectivity in the network between routewrs and other devices. Veryfying that EIGRP behaves as expected in a case of a topology change, by testing link failure events. After a successful EIGRP deployment, document the solution, the veryfication process, and the results for future referance. Documentation should include a topology map, the IP addresing plan, the autonomouse system Number used, the networks included in the EIGRP on each router, and any special metrics configured. Configuration commands

Using the passive interface command with EIGRP the passive interface command is used if you do not want an interface that is connected to a subnet that you do not want to partisipate in the routing protocol. Prevents a routing protocols updates from being sent through the passive interface. Prevents neighbor relationships from being established over the passive interface. Stops routing updfates from being processed or sent over the passive interface. It allows a subnet on a passive interface to be announced in An EIGRP process. Hello messaages are not sent out of a passive interface, and neighboring relationships do not form. configuring a passive interface only disables the the neighbor relationship establishment. the router will still advertise the network to its EIGRP neighbors. On ISP routers there are many interfaces. in the past each interface would have to be configured with the passive interface command. However now there is an alternate passive-interface default command. This means that all the router interfaces will be set to

passive. You would then issue the no passive-interdface int no command to allow routing through that interface. To verify EIGRP operations using passive interface use the follwing commands. Show ip protocols or the show ip eigrp neighbors command. Propogating an EIGRP Default Route. Default routes usally decrease the size of the routing table in routers that recieve them, e.g routers on stub networks or at the access layer where all the routes are not needed to be known. Statically configured default routes can be created with the ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 next hop interface /n ext hop interface. command. The interface is an outgoing interface through which all packet with unknown destinations will be farworded. alternatively, any major network residing in the local routing table can become an EIGRP default route when used in the ip default-network network num globel configuration command. A router configured with this command considers the network number the last resort gateway that it will anounce to other routers wthj the exterior flag set. The network must be reachable by the router that uses this command befor it announces it as a candidate default route to other EIGRP routers. Network number must be passed to other EIGRP routers so that those routers can use this network as their default network and set their default network and set their gATEWAY OF LAST RESORT TO THE DEFAULT NETWORK. the network must be eighther an eigrpderived network in the routing table, or be generated with the static route and redistibuted into EIGRP. EIGRP routes cannot be directly injected as they can with OSPF with the default-information originate command. Multiple default routes can be configured. Downstream routers then use the EIGRP metric to determine the best default-route. When the best defaultroute is selected, the router sets the gateway of last resort to the next hop router of the selected candidate, unless the best candidate route is one of the routers directly connected routes. the show ip route can be used verifie default network information. When you configure the ip default-network command and specify a subnet a static route (the ip route command) is generated in the routers configuration; however, the IOS does not display a message to indicate that this has been done. the entry apears as a static route in the routing table of the router where the command is configured. this can be confusing when you want to remove the default network. The configuration must be removed with the no ip route command and not with the no ip default-network command. EIGRP ans igrp behave differently than RIP when using the ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 command. EIGRP does not redistribute the 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 default

route by default. If the network 0.0.0.0 command was addes to the EIGRP config, it redistributes a default route as a result of the ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 intefface command and not the ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0add command or ip default-network command. EIGRP Route Summerization Cisco distance vector routing protocols have autosummerization enabled by default. EIGRP automatic summerization on the major network boundary can turned on or off. Administrators using EIGRP can now create one or more summary routes within a network on any bit boundary, on any router within the network as long as a more specific route exists in the routing table. When the las specific of a summary route goes away the summary route is deleted from the routing table. The minimum metric of the specific routes must be used as the metric of the summary route. When summerization is configured on a routers interface, asummary route is added to the routers routing table with the route's next hop interface set to null0- directly conected software only interface. Null0 interfaces prevents routers from trying to forward traffic to other routers in the search of more precise, longer match to prevent traffic from looping within the network. E.g if the summerizing router recieves a packet to an unknown subnet that is part of the summerized range it is sent to the null0 interface and droped. For effective summerization, blocks contigious address(subnets) should funnel back to a common router so that a single summary route can be created and then advertised. the number subnets that can be represented by a summary route is calculated by the formula 2n where n equals the differance in the number of bits between the summary and the subnet mask. For example, if network 10.0.0.0/24 has summerized subnets 10.1.8.0/21. This leaves 3 bits form 21 to 24, therfore 2 to the 3 = 8 which will give 10.1.8.0/24 through to 10.1.15.0/24. When creating summary routes, the administrator needs to specify the ip address of the summary route and the summary mask. To turn off auto summarization use the no auto-summary command. Use the ip summary-address eigrp as number address mask admin distance command. to manually creat a summary route at the arbitury bit boundary as long as a more specific route exists in the routing table. EIGRP routers only autosummerize routes for networks to which it is attached. You can use the ip summary-address eigrp as-number 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 comand to inject a default route to a neighbor, as an alternitive. However the automaticaly generated route to null0 may cause problems in

some topologies. IP-EIGRP summary routes are given an administritive distance value of 5 only on thr local router that is performing the summerization (with the ip summary-address eeigrp command.. Standard EIGRP routes recieve an administrative distance of 90, and external routes recieve 170. Frame Relay and EIGRP

Frame relay is a switched WAN technology where virtual circuits (VCs) are created by a service provider. Multiple logical VCs are allowed by Frame Relay to be multiplexed over a single physical interface. VCs are typically perminant virtual circuits (PVCs) that are identified by a data-link conection identifier (DLSIs). These are locally significant between the local router and the frame relay switch to which the router is connected. Each end of a PVC may have a different DLCI . The SPs network takes care of sending the data through the PVC. Mapping between ip address and DLCIs must be defines to provide ip layer connectivity, statically or dynamically. Frame relay networks by default are NBMA networks. NBMA enviorments contain router that are on the same subnet. Broadcast, and multicast packets cannot be sent just once as they are in a broadcast enviorment such as ethernet. Cisco IOS has implimented pseudo-broadcasting in which a router creates a copy of the broadcat or multicast packet for each niehbor reachable through the WAN media, and sends to the apropriatr PVC for that neighbor. This emulates the LAN broadcast that is required for ip routing protocols, such as in the case of EIGRP and the sending of hello and uodayte packets. pseudo-broadcasting has to be tightly controlled on on a routers single WAN interface if there are a larg number of nighbors reachable through it, because of the effects on CPU usage. they can be controlled using the broadcast option on static maps in a frame relay config. They cannot be controlled for neighbors reachable through dynamic maps created via frame relay inverse ARP. Dynamic maps always allows pseudo-broadcasting. Frame-Relay neighbor loss is detected only after the routing protocol hold time expires or if the interface goes down. Frame relay allows remote sites to be interconected using full mesh, partial mesh and hub and spoke. To deploy EIGRP over a physical interface using inverse ARP dynamic mapping is easy as it is the default Split horizon is disabled by default on frame-relay physical interfaces.

Frame Relay map commands paramiters Protocol defines the supported protocol, bridging, or local interfaces prptocol address defines the network layer address for the destinationnrouter interface dlci defines the the localDCLI that is used to connect to the remote protocol address Broadcast Allows broadcasts and multicast over the PVC, permitting the use of dynamic routing protocols over the VC payload compresiion, allows payload compression payload-compress enables packet-by-packet payload compression, using the stacker method which is cisco propriaty. frf9 stac enables FRF.9 compression using stacker method. Frame Relay Multipoint Subinterfaces Several multipoint subinterfaces can be created over a single frame relay physical interface. Multipoint subinterfaces are logical interfaces emulating a multiaccess network. They act like an NBMA physical interface, and therfor use a single subne preserving ip address space. It is applicable to partial mesh and full mesh topolgies. Partial mesh topolgies have to deal with split horizon issues. EIGRP neighbor loss is slow to be detected over multipoint subinterfaces. This is because over slow WAN links the default values of the EIGRP timers on these interfaces are 60 seconds for hello timers and 180 secs for hold timers. In a worst case scenario neighbor loss detection can take upto 3 minuets. On frame relay multipoint subinterfaces all pf the PVCs attatched to the subinterfaces must be lost for the subinterface to be declared down. To configure a subinterface use the interface serial number. subinterface number multipoint command. EIGRP neighbor adjacencies cannot be established or maintained over an interface that is configured as passive. the neighbor [ip address|ipv6-add} interface-type interface-number router configuration command is used to definea neighboring router with which to exchange EIGRP routing information. Instead of using multicast packets, unicast packets are used to forward updates to a specified neighbor. the rout with multiple EIGRP neighbors.. will not process multicast coming inbound on that interface and stops sending multicast packet on that interface. Multiple neighbor statments can be used. to esablish peering sessions. the interface

must be specified through which they travel with the neighbor statement. To verify us the show ip eigrp neighbors. Frame Relay over Frame-Relay point-to-point subinterfaces Several point-to-point subinterfaces can be configured over single Frame relay physical interface. these are logical interfaces emulating a leased line network providing a routing equivalent to point-to-point physical interfaces. like physical interfaces,each interface requires its own subnet. Frame relay pint-to-point is applicable to hub and spoke topolgies. EIGRP neighbor loss is quite facst on point-to-point subinterfaces becausr the default values of the eigrp hello timer and the EIGRP hold timers are identical to the values used on point to point physical links (5 seconds for the hello timer 15 seconds for hold timer. In the worst case scenario the neighjbor loss is detected within 15 secs. Also fast neighbor loss detectin on point to point interfaces is due to the fact that subinterfaces are declared down if the DLCI atatched to the interface is lost, and loss detection id immediate. On multpoint subinterfaces all the PVCs attatched to it must be lost for the interface to be declared doen Neighbor loss detection because of DLCI loss only works if the frame relay network supports end to end intergrated management (LMI) signaling. On some FRAme relay networks one end of the connection might fail but the DLCI would still be declared operational on the other end of the connection. the interface searial number. subinterface command is used to configure a sub interface. For frame relay, ip address to DLCI on point to point subinterfaces is done by specifying the local DLCI value, using the the framerelay interface-dlci dlci command. EIGRP Over MPLS MPLS is an IETF standerd architecture combing the advantages of of layer 3 routing with the benifits of layer 2 switching. with MPLS short fixed lenghth labels are assigned to each packet at the edge og the network. Rather than examining the ip packet header information, MPLS nodes use this label to determine how to process the data, resulting in a more scalable and flexible WAN solution. MPLS enables scalable VPNs end to end quality of service and oher ip services, allowing efficiant utilization of existing networks with simpler configs and management. MPLS is a conection-orientated technology whos operation is based on a label attatched to each packet as it entres the MPLS network. the identifaction of flow of packets e.g voice traffioc between two nodes is done via the use of

Forwerding equivalance class (FEC). An FEC is a grouping of packets. packets that belong tpo the same FEC recives the same treatment in the network. The FEC can be determined by various paramiters, including source or destination ip address or port number, ip protocols, ip precedence, or layer 2 circuite id. FECs can define the flows QoS requirments. in addition, appropriate queuing and discard policies can be applied for FECs. The MPLS network nodes, called label switching router (LSRs) use the label to determine the next hop for the packet. LSRs do not to examin the packets ip header; rather they forward on the label After link establishment, packets destined for the same endpoint with the same requirments can be forwarded based on these labels without routing decisions at every hop. Labels usually corispond to layer 3 deatination prefixes, which maked MPLS equivilent to deatination-based routing. Label switched pathe (LSP) must be defined for each FEC befor packet can be sent. Labels are localy significant to each MPLS node only. Nodes must communicate what lable to use for each FEC. Protocols used for this communication: LabelDistribution protocol, enahnced version of the resource reservation protocol. Interior routing protocols such as OSPF or EIGRP can be used within an MPLS network to exchange routing information MPLS is unique by the fact that it can carry multiple labels within a packet. This known as a label stacking that at which the the top lablel is always processed first. this enabled multiple LSPs to be aggrigated, creating tunnels through multiple levels of an MPLS network. MPLS uses a 32 bit field between a packets data link layer header and its IP header. It has to be noted that packets sent between the same endpoints might belong to different MPLS FECs, and therfore might flow through differant paths to the network. ISPs offer layer 2 transport services to interconect networks at various offices via customer equipment (CE) routers. these are caried over the ISPs circuit based infrastructure to build layer 2 VPNs. initial VPNs were offerd layer 2 vpn based on point to point data link connectivity, using ATM or frame relay virtual circuits MPLS VPNs were inyroduced to provide a unified network of layer 3 VPN services. AToM enables sending layer 2 frames accross an MPLS backbone. Unifies layer 2 and layer 3 offerings over a common MPLS infrastructure. Layer 3 MPLS Overview In MPLS VPN terminology the network is devidede into the customer controlled part (C network) and the provider part (p network).

Contigiousportions of the C network ar colled sites and are linked to the P network via customer edge routers. CE routers are connected to the provider edge routers, that serve as edge devices for the provider network. the core devices in the provider network provide the transpoert accross the provider backbone and do no carry customer routes. The service provider connects multiple customers over a common MPLS backbone using MPLS VPNs.In an MPLS VPN each customer is assigned an indipendant routing table-the virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) table in the PE router- that corressponds to the dedicated PE router in a traditional peer to peer model. Routing accross the provider backbone is performed by a seperate routing process that uses the globel ip routing table. PE routers maintain seperate routing tables for each customer. MPLS VPN architecture provided ISPs with a peer-to-peer VPN architecture that combines the best features of an overly VPN with support for overlapping customer address space. PE routers participate in customer routing, providing optimum routing between customer sites PE routers carry a seprate set of routes for each customer, isolating each customer from other customers. Cusomer Perspective of Layer MPLS VPNs

MPLS VPN backbone looks like a standerd corporate backbone to the CE routers. The CE routers run standard ip routing software and exchange routing updates with the PE routers, which appear to them as normal routers in the customers network. The customer and the SP must agree on EIGRP paramiters. The internal topology of thr MPLS backbone is transparent to the customer. The internal P-routers are hidden from the customer's view and CE routers are unaware of the MPLS-VPN. Below are the layer 3 VPN requirements that must be met. The customer routers should not be MPLS VPN aware. They should run standerd ip routing software. The provider core routers must not carry customer VPN routes to make the MPLS VPN solution scalable. The PE routers must support MPLS VPN services and traditional IP services.

Layer 2 MPLS VPNs Layer 3 MPLS VPNs provide layer 2 Ethernet port-to-port connection, such as between two customer routers. Encapsulated MPLS packets that are sent over a link to a PE2 router decapsulates the PE2 packet and reproduces the Ethernet frame on its Ethernet link. This process is atype of AToM colled EoMPLS, also known as a type of Metro Ethernet service. AToM and EoMPLS do not include any MAC layer address learning and filtering, and also do not use spanning tree protocol (STP). Bridge protocol data units (BPDus) are propogated transparantly and not processed, so LAN loop detection must be performed by other devices or avoided by designe. Service providers can use LAN switches in conjunction with AToM and EoMPLS to provide thes features. Withe EIGRP over EoMPLS there are no changes to the EIGRP configuration from the customer perspective. EIGRP needs to be enabled with the correct autonomouse system number, and include all the interfaces that will run EIGRP, including the link toward the PE routers.From the EIGRP perspective, the MPLS backbone and PE routers are not visible. Relationships between the customer routers are established directly over the MPLS backbone. Ethernet VLAN Connectivity Differant subinterface are configured in the PE routers are used to connect differant VLANs.

EIGRP Load Balancing Equal cost load ballncing is a routers capabiltity to distribute traffic over all the routers that have the same metric for the destination address. All ip routing protocols on Cisco routers can perform equal-cost load balancing. load balancing increases the utilization of network segments, thus increasing effective network bandwidth.