Network Preparation for Layer 2 VPN and Layer 3 VPN

In the first part of this article series we talked about service terms and some steps about service creation and the preparing the network for service creation. Here, in this article, we will talk about the practical configuration of the network before service configuration. All these steps in this article are as a preparation for the service creation.

The below topology will be our reference during our configuration.

Here, we will do the configuration of R4 only. The other routers must be configured like R4.Let’s see the configuration step by step:

Step 1 – IGP must be configured.

R4# configure router
R4>config>router# interface system
R4>config>router>if# address 4.4.4.4/32
R4>config>router>if# exit
R4>config>router# interface toR3
R4>config>router>if# address 10.10.34.4/24

R4>config>router# ospf
R4>config>router>ospf# traffic-engineering
R4>config>router>ospf# area 0.0.0.0
R4>config>router>ospf# interface system
R4>config>router>ospf>if# exit
R4>config>router>ospf# interface toR3

To check the ospf neighborship use the “show router ospf neighbor” command.

Step 2 – Network must be converged.

With “show router route-table” command, you can check the routes if all the ospf routes are existing.

Step 3 – MPLS must be enabled.

R4# configure router
R4>config>router# mpls
R4>config>router>mpls# interface system
R4>config>router>mpls>if# exit
R4>config>router>mpls# interface toR3
R4>config>router>mpls# exit

You can check MPLS configuration with “info” command as other configuration checks.

R4>config>router>mpls# info
            interface "system"
            exit
            interface "interface toR3"
            exit
            no shutdown

You can also check mpls interfaces with the “show router mpls interface” command.

-RSVP must be enabled.-

RSVP is automatically enabled when the MPLS is enabled. You can check this, with the “info” command.

R4>config>router>rsvp# info
            interface "system"
            exit
            interface "interface toR3"
            exit
            no shutdown

You can also use “show router rsvp interface” command to check RSVP enabled interfaces.

-LDP must be enabled for TLDP.-

R4# configure router
R4>config>router# ldp
R4>config>router>mpls# interface-parameters
R4>config>router>mpls>interface-parameters# interface toR3
R4>config>router>mpls>interface-parameters>if# exit

After this configuration, you check the LDP with the “show router ldp status”, “show router ldp session” and “show router ldp discovery” commands.

Step 4 – MPLS Path must be created.

If RSVP-TE is used as the label switching protocol, then MPLS path must be created.

R4# configure router mpls
R4>config>router>mpls# path to R1
R4>config>router>mpls>path# hop 10 3.3.3.3 strict
R4>config>router>mpls>path# hop 20 2.2.2.2 strict
R4>config>router>mpls>path# hop 30 1.1.1.1 strict
R4>config>router>mpls>path# no shutdown
R4>config>router>mpls>path# exit

While creating the path, you can use “loose” instead of “strict”. Here, you can use strict when defining the node explicitly, meaning “go to the node,through this router”. And you can use loose when you think that “go to the node, but you define how”.

Step 5 – LSP must be created and the created path must bind to the LSP.

R4>config>router>mpls# lsp R4-R1
R4>config>router>mpls>lsp# to 1.1.1.1
R4>config>router>mpls>lsp# primary  toR1
R4>config>router>mpls>lsp>primary# exit
R4>config>router>mpls>lsp# no shutdown
R4>config>router>mpls>lsp# exit

Step 6 – SDP must be created.

SDP must be created before the service creation. More than one service can be associated to a SDP, after this creation.

R4# configure service
R4>config>service# sdp 50 mpls create
R4>config>service>sdp# far-end 1.1.1.1 
R4>config>service>sdp# lsp R4-R1
R4>config>service>sdp# no shutdown
R4>config>service>sdp# exit 

Above, you will use ldp instead of lsp, if you are using LDP instead of RSVP-TE.

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Step 7 – Customer facing ports (access ports) configured.

R4# configure port 1/1/2
R4>config>port# shut
R4>config>port# ethernet mode access
R4>config>port# no shutdown
R4>config>port# exit
R4# configure port 1/1/3
R4>config>port# shut
R4>config>port# ethernet mode access
R4>config>port# no shutdown
R4>config>port# exit

You can also change the encapsulation type with the command “ethernet dot1q|null|qinq” .

After this last step, our network is ready to define services.

We will talk about configuring different services in the following articles. But as a summary, the service configuration steps are below:

1) Create a Customer with a Customer ID.
2) Create a service with Service ID that is associated with this Customer ID.
3) Define SAP.
4) Associate SDP to the service.
5) Enable service.

Optionaly, you can define the below additional steps:

6) Accounting
7) Filtering
8) Qos

With this two article, I tried to explain the configuration of the core before the service creation and configuration. I hope this articles will be helpful for you. In the following articles there will be more on Nokia Services. Keep on IPcisco.com ;)