Advice on When It Is Safe to Start Sending Data on Label Switched Paths Established Using RSVP-TE

Abstract

The Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) has been extended to support Traffic Engineering (TE) in Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) and Generalized MPLS (GMPLS) networks. The protocol enables signaling exchanges to establish Label Switched Paths (LSPs) that traverse nodes and link to provide end-to-end data paths. Each node is programmed with "cross-connect" information as the signaling messages are processed. The cross-connection information instructs the node how to forward data that it receives.

End points of an LSP need to know when it is safe to start sending data so that it is not misdelivered, and so that safety issues specific to optical data-plane technology are satisfied. Likewise, all label switching routers along the path of the LSP need to know when to program their data planes relative to sending and receiving control-plane messages.

This document clarifies and summarizes the RSVP-TE protocol exchanges with relation to the programming of cross-connects along an LSP for both unidirectional and bidirectional LSPs. This document does not define any new procedures or protocol extensions, and defers completely to the documents that provide normative references. The clarifications set out in this document may also be used to help interpret LSP establishment performance figures for MPLS-TE and GMPLS devices. This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is published for informational purposes.

Abstract as published in the RFC, via rfc-editor.org.

What “Informational” means

Published for the general information of the community. It does not define an IETF standard and carries no standards-track status.