CSI-HO-004 – Hands-On MPLS Traffic Engineering

CellStream, Inc. – Telecom Consulting and Training!

2.5 -Day Instructor Led Hands On Lab Class Available in either Web Based delivery or On-Site Delivery Minimum 10 students – Maximum 16 students

 

Course Description:

A fundamental flaw of Layer 3 networking has been its dependency on Layer 2 to provide resiliency and control of access to bandwidth without any integration of Layer 2 and Layer 3 performance attributes. For instance, Layer 3 QoS cannot be integrated with Layer 2 ATM virtual circuit bandwidth and delay without manual configuration and management.

Before the pressure on network operators to reduce budgets and slash costs, this dependency was mandated by the design of the 7-layer OSI model and associated control planes. Today, networking is very different. MPLS offers a tremendous opportunity to enable cost savings via a common control plane. One of the benefits designed into MPLS has also been the ability to provide integrated constraint-based routing, bandwidth management, and improved network performance for IP networking. This means L2 performance integrated into Layer 3 networking – Traffic Engineering.

This course targets the subject of MPLS Traffic Engineering by offering the student practical, hands-on skills that reveal the details of Traffic Engineering on an MPLS domain. This is a skills-based and knowledge based course, that is instructor led by certified MPLS specialists using real network routers to meet the objectives of the course.

Course Objectives:

The objectives of the course are:

1. Develop a hands-on skill set targeted at MPLS Traffic Engineering in the following key areas:
   • Review IP and MPLS Basic Routing Operations
   • Network Design Considerations for MPLS Traffic Engineering Services
   • Complex MPLS Traffic Engineering Options
   • MPLS Network Protections and Survivability
2. Master the basic MPLS Traffic Engineering Architecture
3. Master MPLS Traffic Engineering related protocols and the common control plane
4. Master the MPLS Traffic Engineering Services, functions and applications
5. Master MPLS Fast Reroute

These objectives are met by covering the necessary technical bases in a straight forward manner, by keep the content in context of the objectives – connecting the dots. Utilizing a short, subject specific architecture with exercises to drive home key points and Hands-On experience that reveal these points builds skills and knowledge based on Bloom’s Taxonomy. Presentation is industry current and up-to-date using a technology specialists.

Audience:

The target audience for this course is anyone in the telecommunications field that requires a solid and complete understanding of the fundamental operations of MPLS TE networking, and desires hands-on skills that can be applied to their job function. Ideal candidates are:

• Central Office Technicians, Engineers, and Supervisors
• Line Technicians, and Customer Service Technicians
• Operations individuals that will provide MPLS TE configuration and support services
• Development Engineers that must know MPLS TE networking in order to provide hardware and software solutions
• Network Design Engineers that need to understand MPLS TE services and applications
• Network Management individuals that are providing element and network management tools
• Network Administrators and IT professionals
• Technical sales individuals that must be able to correlate features with functionality
• Technical marketing individuals that want more than just a basic understanding of MPLS TE
• Certification Track individuals that need to expand their knowledge and studies

Course Prerequisites:

CellStream has designed this course to appeal to anyone needing the skills and knowledge of MPLS Traffic Engineering. The ideal student will have some experience in Basic MPLS operations (for instance having taken the CellStream Course on MPLS or the CellStream Course on Advanced MPLS). The course also uses Command Line Interface skills training so the student will need to understand how to operate Telnet-based services.

All students must attend with a lap-top computer in order to interface to the Router Lab. If the course is held at a classroom where computers are available, the Lap-top computer will not be required.

Course Materials:

Students will be provided with a Course Student Guide and a Lab Guide. Also, a lab system for configuration and labs will be provided.

Related Content:

This course can be followed up with learning in two areas: 1.Hands-On Advanced MPLS Networking (focuses on handling IPv6, Multicast, Provider to Provider MPLS, Provider Serving Provider, Hierarchical LDP and RSVP, TE Protection and Resilience and OA&M), and 2.Mastering AToM, VPWS and VPLS (focuses on Layer 2 VPNs, Pseudowires, Encapsulation, Signaling and Control Extensions, EoMPLS, and QoS) courses.

Course Outline:

The course outline is as follows:

• Section 1: The Groundwork
  • Overview and Introductions
  • Definition of Traffic Engineering & the problem it solves
  • Performance Objectives
  • Hose & Pipe Models
  • MPLS TE Resources
  • Brief Review of MPLS Fundamentals
  • LAB 1: Getting Set Up for MPLS Networking
• Section 2: Constraining Path Selection in MPLS TE Networks
  • Traditional Routing
  • Constraint Based Routing (CBR)
• Section 3: MPLS TE Architecture
  • Network Attributes
  • Tunnel Attributes
• Section 4: Extending RSVP for MPLS TE
  • Protocol Format
  • Extensions for TE
  • Reservation Styles
• Section 5: Enhancing OSPF and IS-IS for MPLS TE
  • OSPF
  • IS-IS
• Section 6: Configuring MPLS TE
  • Platform and Network
  • IGP Configuration
  • LAB 2: Preparing Router Lab Network for TE Tunnels
  • Configuring a Dynamic Tunnel
  • LAB 3: Dynamic Tunnels
  • Configuring a Static/Explicit Tunnel
  • LAB 4: Explicit Tunnels and Network Failure
  • TE Configurations Options
• Section 7: Troubleshooting and Monitoring MPLS TE
• Section 8: Advanced Traffic Engineering Features
  • Forwarding Traffic into Traffic Engineered Tunnels
  • LAB 5: Controlling Forwarding into TE Tunnels
• Section 9: Protection and Restoration of TE Tunnels
  • Types of Protection
  • Link Protection
  • LAB 6: Link Protect Lab
  • Node Protection
  • LAB 7: Node Protect Lab
• Section 10: Integrating IP Quality of Service
  • Review of QoS and MPLS QoS
  • Tunnel Modes – Uniform, Pipe, Short Pipe
  • Forwarding Diffserv into a TE Tunnel
  • LAB 8: MPLS TE-QoS
• Section 11: Course Summary