MPLS LSP Ping uses Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) echo request and reply packets to validate a label switched path (LSP). Both an MPLS echo request and an MPLS echo reply are User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets with source and destination ports set to 3503.

The MPLS echo request packet is sent to a target device through the use of the appropriate label stack associated with the LSP to be validated. Use of the label stack causes the packet to be switched inband of the LSP (that is, forwarded over the LSP itself). The destination IP address of the MPLS echo request packet is different from the address used to select the label stack. The destination address of the UDP packet is defined as a 127.x .y .z /8 address. This prevents the IP packet from being IP switched to its destination if the LSP is broken.

An MPLS echo reply is sent in response to an MPLS echo request. It is sent as an IP packet and forwarded using IP, MPLS, or a combination of both types of switching. The source address of the MPLS echo reply packet is an address from the device generating the echo reply. The destination address is the source address of the device in the MPLS echo request packet.

The figure below shows the echo request and echo reply paths for MPLS LSP Ping.

If you initiate an MPLS LSP Ping request at LSR1 to a Forwarding Equivalence Class (FEC), at LSR6, you get the results shown in the table below .

You can use MPLS LSP Ping to validate IPv4 Label Distribution Protocol (LDP), Any Transport over MPLS (AToM), and IPv4 Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) FECs by using appropriate keywords and arguments with the command:

ping mpls
 {ipv4
 
destination-address destination-mask
 | pseudowire
 
ipv4-address
 vc-id
 
} 

MPLS LSP Traceroute also uses Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) echo request and reply packets to validate a label switched path (LSP). The echo request and echo reply are User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets with source and destination ports set to 3503.

The MPLS LSP Traceroute feature uses time-to-live (TTL) settings to force expiration of the TTL along an LSP. MPLS LSP Traceroute incrementally increases the TTL value in its MPLS echo requests (TTL = 1, 2, 3, 4, ...) to discover the downstream mapping of each successive hop. The success of the LSP traceroute depends on the transit device processing the MPLS echo request when it receives a labeled packet with a TTL of 1. On Cisco devices, when the TTL expires, the packet is sent to the Route Processor (RP) for processing. The transit device returns an MPLS echo reply containing information about the transit hop in response to the TTL-expired MPLS packet.

The figure below shows an MPLS LSP Traceroute example with an LSP from LSR1 to LSR4.

If you enter an LSP traceroute to a Forwarding Equivalence Class (FEC) at LSR4 from LSR1, you get the results shown in the table below.

You can use MPLS LSP Traceroute to validate IPv4 Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) and IPv4 RSVP FECs by using appropriate keywords and arguments with the trace mpls command:

trace mpls ipv4 {destination-address destination-mask} 

By default, the TTL is set to 30. Therefore, the traceroute output always contains 30 lines, even if an LSP problem exists. This might mean duplicate entries in the output, should an LSP problem occur. The device address of the last point that the trace reaches is repeated until the output is 30 lines. You can ignore the duplicate entries. The following example shows that the trace encountered an LSP problem at the device that has an IP address of 10.6.1.6:

Device# traceroute mpls ipv4 10.6.7.4/32
Tracing MPLS Label Switched Path to 10.6.7.4/32, timeout is 2 seconds
Codes: '!' - success, 'Q' - request not transmitted,
       '.' - timeout, 'U' - unreachable,
       'R' - downstream router but not target
Type escape sequence to abort.
  0 10.6.1.14 MRU 4470 [Labels: 22 Exp: 0]
R 1 10.6.1.5 MRU 4470 [Labels: 21 Exp: 0] 2 ms
R 2 10.6.1.6 4 ms                  <------ Router address repeated for 2nd to 30th TTL.
R 3 10.6.1.6 1 ms
R 4 10.6.1.6 1 ms
R 5 10.6.1.6 3 ms
R 6 10.6.1.6 4 ms
R 7 10.6.1.6 1 ms
R 8 10.6.1.6 2 ms
R 9 10.6.1.6 3 ms
R 10 10.6.1.6 4 ms
R 11 10.6.1.6 1 ms
R 12 10.6.1.6 2 ms
R 13 10.6.1.6 4 ms
R 14 10.6.1.6 5 ms
R 15 10.6.1.6 2 ms
R 16 10.6.1.6 3 ms
R 17 10.6.1.6 4 ms
R 18 10.6.1.6 2 ms
R 19 10.6.1.6 3 ms
R 20 10.6.1.6 4 ms
R 21 10.6.1.6 1 ms
R 22 10.6.1.6 2 ms
R 23 10.6.1.6 3 ms
R 24 10.6.1.6 4 ms
R 25 10.6.1.6 1 ms
R 26 10.6.1.6 3 ms
R 27 10.6.1.6 4 ms
R 28 10.6.1.6 1 ms
R 29 10.6.1.6 2 ms
R 30 10.6.1.6 3 ms                   <------ TTL 30.

If you know the maximum number of hops in your network, you can set the TTL to a smaller value with the trace mpls ttl maximum-time-to-live command. The following example shows the same traceroute command as the previous example, except that this time the TTL is set to 5.

Device# traceroute mpls ipv4 10.6.7.4/32 ttl 5
Tracing MPLS Label Switched Path to 10.6.7.4/32, timeout is 2 seconds
Codes: '!' - success, 'Q' - request not transmitted,
       '.' - timeout, 'U' - unreachable,
       'R' - downstream router but not target
Type escape sequence to abort.
  0 10.6.1.14 MRU 4470 [Labels: 22 Exp: 0]
R 1 10.6.1.5 MRU 4474 [No Label] 3 ms
R 2 10.6.1.6 4 ms                  <------ Router address repeated for 2nd to 5th TTL.
R 3 10.6.1.6 1 ms
R 4 10.6.1.6 3 ms
R 5 10.6.1.6 4 ms

AToM Virtual Circuit Connection Verification (AToM VCCV) allows the sending of control packets inband of an AToM pseudowire (PW) from the originating provider edge (PE) device. The transmission is intercepted at the destination PE device, instead of being forwarded to the customer edge (CE) device. This capability allows you to use MPLS LSP Ping to test the PW section of AToM virtual circuits (VCs).

AToM VCCV consists of the following:

• A signaled component in which the AToM VCCV capabilities are advertised during VC label signaling

• A switching component that causes the AToM VC payload to be treated as a control packet

MPLS LSP Ping and Traceroute command options are specified as keywords and arguments on the ping mpls and trace mpls commands.

The ping mpls command provides the options displayed in the command syntax below:

ping mpls ipv4{destination-address/destination-mask [destination address-start
address-end increment] [ttl time-to-live] | pseudowire ipv4-address
vc-id vc-id [destination address-start address-end increment] | [ttl time-to-live]} [source
source-address] [repeat count] [timeout seconds][{size
 packet-size} | {sweep minimum maximum size-Increment}] [pad pattern]
[reply mode {ipv4|router-alert}] [interval msec]
[exp exp-bits] [verbose] 

The trace mpls command provides the options displayed in the command syntax below:

trace mpls {ipv4 destination-address/destination-mask [destination
address-start [address-end [address-increment]]]}
[source source-address] [timeout seconds] [reply mode reply-mode]
[ttl maximum-time-to-live] [exp exp-bits] 

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) echo request packets sent during a label switched path (LSP) ping are never forwarded by IP. The IP header destination address field in an MPLS echo request packet is a 127.x.y.z /8 address. Devices should not forward packets using a 127.x.y.z /8 address. The 127.x.y.z /8 address corresponds to an address for the local host.

The use of a 127.x .y .z address as a destination address of the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packet is significant in that the MPLS echo request packet fails to make it to the target device if a transit device does not label switch the LSP. This allows for the detection of LSP breakages.

• If an LSP breakage occurs at a transit device, the MPLS echo packet is not forwarded, but consumed by the device.

• If the LSP is intact, the MPLS echo packet reaches the target device and is processed by the terminal point of the LSP.

The figure below shows the path of the MPLS echo request and reply when a transit device fails to label switch a packet in an LSP.

Note

An Any Transport over MPLS (AToM) payload does not contain usable forwarding information at a transit device because the payload might not be an IP packet. An MPLS virtual private network (VPN) packet, although an IP packet, does not contain usable forwarding information at a transit device because the destination IP address is only significant to the virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) instances at the endpoints of the MPLS network.

The table below describes the characters that the device processing an LSP ping or LSP traceroute packet returns to the sender about the failure or success of the request.

You can also view the return code for an MPLS LSP Ping operation if you enter the ping mpls verbose command.

During an MPLS LSP Ping, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) echo request packets are sent with the IP packet attribute set to do not fragment. That is, the DF bit is set in the IP header of the packet. This allows you to use the MPLS echo request to test for the MTU that can be supported for the packet through the label switched path (LSP) without fragmentation.

The figure below shows a sample network with a single LSP from PE1 to PE2 formed with labels advertised by means of LDP.

You can determine the maximum receive unit (MRU) at each hop by tracing the LSP using the MPLS Traceroute feature. The MRU is the maximum size of a labeled packet that can be forwarded through an LSP. The following example shows the results of a trace mpls command when the LSP is formed with labels created by the Label Distribution Protocol (LDP):

Device# trace mpls ipv4 10.131.159.252/32
Tracing MPLS Label Switched Path to 10.131.159.252/32, timeout is 2 seconds
Codes: '!' - success, 'Q' - request not transmitted,
       '.' - timeout, 'U' - unreachable,
       'R' - downstream router but not target
Type escape sequence to abort.
  0 10.131.191.230 MRU 1496 [Labels: 22/19 Exp: 0/0]
R 1 10.131.159.226 MRU 1500 [Labels: 19 Exp: 0] 40 ms
R 2 10.131.159.229 MRU 1504 [implicit-null] 28 ms
! 3 10.131.159.230 40 ms

You can determine the MRU for the LSP at each hop through the use of the show forwarding detail command:

Device# show mpls forwarding 10.131.159.252 detail

Local  Outgoing    Prefix            Bytes tag  Outgoing   Next Hop
tag    tag or VC   or Tunnel Id      switched   interface
22     19          10.131.159.252/32 0          Tu1        point2point
        MAC/Encaps=14/22, MRU=1496, Tag Stack{22 19}, via Et0/0
        AABBCC009700AABBCC0098008847 0001600000013000
        No output feature configured

To determine the maximum sized echo request that will fit on the LSP, you can find the IP MTU by using the show interface type number command.

Device# show interface e0/0

FastEthernet0/0/0 is up, line protocol is up
  Hardware is Lance, address is aabb.cc00.9800 (bia aabb.cc00.9800)
  Internet address is 10.131.191.230/30
  MTU 1500 bytes, BW 10000 Kbit, DLY 1000 usec, rely 255/255, load ½55
  Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set
  Keepalive set (10 sec)
  ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00
  Last input 00:00:01, output 00:00:01, output hang never
  Last clearing of "show interface" counters never
  Input queue: 0/75/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 0
  Queueing strategy: fifo
  Output queue: 0/40 (size/max)
  5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
  5 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
     377795 packets input, 33969220 bytes, 0 no buffer
     Received 231137 broadcasts, 0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
     0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
     0 input packets with dribble condition detected
     441772 packets output, 40401350 bytes, 0 underruns
     0 output errors, 0 collisions, 10 interface resets
     0 babbles, 0 late collision, 0 deferred
     0 lost carrier, 0 no carrier
     0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out

The IP MTU in the show interface type number example is 1500 bytes. Subtract the number of bytes corresponding to the label stack from the MTU number. From the output of the show mpls forwarding command, the Tag stack consists of one label (21). Therefore, the largest MPLS echo request packet that can be sent in the LSP, shown in the figure above, is 1500 - (2 x 4) = 1492.

You can validate this by using the following ping mpls command:

Device# ping mpls ipv4 10.131.159.252/32 sweep 1492 1500 1 repeat 1
Sending 1, [1492..1500]-byte MPLS Echos to 10.131.159.252/32,
     timeout is 2 seconds, send interval is 0 msec:
Codes: '!' - success, 'Q' - request not transmitted,
       '.' - timeout, 'U' - unreachable,
       'R' - downstream router but not target
Type escape sequence to abort.
!QQQQQQQQ
Success rate is 11 percent (1/9), round-trip min/avg/max = 40/40/40 ms

In this command, only packets of 1492 bytes are sent successfully, as indicated by the exclamation point (!). Packets of byte sizes 1493 to 1500 are source-quenched, as indicated by the Q.

You can pad an MPLS echo request so that a payload of a given size can be tested. The pad TLV is useful when you use the MPLS echo request to discover the MTU supportable by an LSP. MTU discovery is extremely important for applications like AToM that contain non-IP payloads that cannot be fragmented.

To manage a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) network you must have the ability to monitor label switched paths (LSPs) and quickly isolate MPLS forwarding problems. You need ways to characterize the liveliness of an LSP and reliably detect when a label switched path fails to deliver user traffic.

You can use MPLS LSP Ping to verify the LSP that is used to transport packets destined for IPv4 Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) prefixes, traffic engineering (TE) tunnels, and Any Transport over MPLS pseudowire Forwarding Equivalence Classes (AToM PW FECs). You can use MPLS LSP Traceroute to trace LSPs that are used to carry packets destined for IPv4 LDP prefixes and TE tunnel FECs.

An MPLS echo request is sent through an LSP to validate it. A TTL expiration or LSP breakage causes the transit device to process the echo request before it gets to the intended destination and returns an MPLS echo reply that contains an explanatory reply code to the originator of the echo request.

The successful echo request is processed at the egress of the LSP. The echo reply is sent via an IP path, an MPLS path, or a combination of both back to the originator of the echo request.

Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) ping and trace commands are often used to help diagnose the root cause of a failure. When a label switched path (LSP) is broken, the packet might make its way to the target device by way of IP forwarding, thus making ICMP ping and traceroute unreliable for detecting Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) forwarding problems. The MPLS LSP Ping, Traceroute and AToM VCCV feature extends this diagnostic and troubleshooting ability to the MPLS network and handles inconsistencies between the IP and MPLS forwarding tables, inconsistencies in the MPLS control and data plane, and problems with the reply path.

The figure below shows a sample topology with a Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) LSP and traffic engineering (TE) tunnel LSP.

This section contains the following topics:

An Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) ping or trace follows one path from the originating device to the target device. Round robin load balancing of IP packets from a source device is used to discover the various output paths to the target IP address.

For MPLS LSP Ping and Traceroute, Cisco devices use the source and destination addresses in the IP header for load balancing when multiple paths exist through the network to a target device. The Cisco implementation of MPLS might check the destination address of an IP payload to accomplish load balancing (this checking depends on the platform).

To check for load balancing paths, you use the 127.z.y.x /8 destination address in the ping mpls ipvr ip-address address-mask destination address-start address-end address-increment command. The following examples show that different paths are followed to the same destination. This demonstrates that load balancing occurs between the originating device and the target device.

To ensure that the Fast Ethernet interface 1/0/0 on the PE1 device is operational, you enter the following commands on the PE1 device:

Device# configure terminal
Enter configuration commands, one per line.  End with CNTL/Z.
Device(config)# interface fastethernet 1/0/0
Device(config-if)# no shutdown
Device(config-if)# end
*Dec 31 19:14:10.034: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface FastEthernet1/0/0, changed state to up
*Dec 31 19:14:11.054: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface FastEthernet1/0/0,
changed state to upend
PE1# 
*Dec 31 19:14:12.574: %SYS-5-CONFIG_I: Configured from console by console
*Dec 31 19:14:19.334: %OSPF-5-ADJCHG: Process 1, Nbr 10.131.159.252 on FastEthernet1/0/0
from LOADING to FULL, Loading Done
PE1# 

The following show mpls forwarding-table command displays the possible outgoing interfaces and next hops for the prefix 10.131.159.251/32:

Device# show mpls forwarding-table 10.131.159.251

Local  Outgoing    Prefix            Bytes tag  Outgoing   Next Hop
tag    tag or VC   or Tunnel Id      switched   interface
21     19          10.131.159.251/32 0          FE0/0/0 10.131.191.229
       20          10.131.159.251/32 0          FE1/0/0 10.131.159.245

The following ping mpls command to 10.131.159.251/32 with a destination UDP address of 127.0.0.1 shows that the path selected has a path index of 0:

Device# ping mpls ipv4
 10.131.159.251/32 destination
 127.0.0.1 repeat 1
Sending 1, 100-byte MPLS Echos to 10.131.159.251/32,
      timeout is 2 seconds, send interval is 0 msec:
Codes: '!' - success, 'Q' - request not transmitted,
       '.' - timeout, 'U' - unreachable,
       'R' - downstream router but not target
Type escape sequence to abort.
!
Success rate is 100 percent (1/1), round-trip min/avg/max = 40/40/40 ms
PE1#
*Dec 29 20:42:40.638: LSPV: Echo Request sent on IPV4 LSP, load_index 2,
pathindex 0
, size 100
*Dec 29 20:42:40.638: 46 00 00 64 00 00 40 00 FF 11 9D 03 0A 83 BF FC
*Dec 29 20:42:40.638: 7F 00 00 01 94 04 00 00 0D AF 0D AF 00 4C 14 70
*Dec 29 20:42:40.638: 00 01 00 00 01 02 00 00 1A 00 00 1C 00 00 00 01
*Dec 29 20:42:40.638: C3 9B 10 40 A3 6C 08 D4 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*Dec 29 20:42:40.638: 00 01 00 09 00 01 00 05 0A 83 9F FB 20 00 03 00
*Dec 29 20:42:40.638: 13 01 AB CD AB CD AB CD AB CD AB CD AB CD AB CD
*Dec 29 20:42:40.638: AB CD AB CD
*Dec 29 20:42:40.678: LSPV: Echo packet received: src 10.131.159.225, 
dst 10.131.191.252, size 74
*Dec 29 20:42:40.678: AA BB CC 00 98 01 AA BB CC 00 FC 01 08 00 45 C0
*Dec 29 20:42:40.678: 00 3C 32 D6 00 00 FD 11 15 37 0A 83 9F E1 0A 83
*Dec 29 20:42:40.678: BF FC 0D AF 0D AF 00 28 D1 85 00 01 00 00 02 02
*Dec 29 20:42:40.678: 03 00 1A 00 00 1C 00 00 00 01 C3 9B 10 40 A3 6C
*Dec 29 20:42:40.678: 08 D4 C3 9B 10 40 66 F5 C3 C8

The following ping mpls command to 10.131.159.251/32 with a destination UDP address of 127.0.0.1 shows that the path selected has a path index of 1:

Device# ping mpls ipv4 10.131.159.251/32 dest 127.0.0.1 repeat 1
Sending 1, 100-byte MPLS Echos to 10.131.159.251/32,
      timeout is 2 seconds, send interval is 0 msec:
Codes: '!' - success, 'Q' - request not transmitted,
       '.' - timeout, 'U' - unreachable,
       'R' - downstream router but not target
Type escape sequence to abort.
!
Success rate is 100 percent (1/1), round-trip min/avg/max = 40/40/40 ms
*Dec 29 20:43:09.518: LSPV: Echo Request sent on IPV4 LSP, load_index 13,
pathindex 1
, size 100
*Dec 29 20:43:09.518: 46 00 00 64 00 00 40 00 FF 11 9D 01 0A 83 BF FC
*Dec 29 20:43:09.518: 7F 00 00 03 94 04 00 00 0D AF 0D AF 00 4C 88 58
*Dec 29 20:43:09.518: 00 01 00 00 01 02 00 00 38 00 00 1D 00 00 00 01
*Dec 29 20:43:09.518: C3 9B 10 5D 84 B3 95 84 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*Dec 29 20:43:09.518: 00 01 00 09 00 01 00 05 0A 83 9F FB 20 00 03 00
*Dec 29 20:43:09.518: 13 01 AB CD AB CD AB CD AB CD AB CD AB CD AB CD
*Dec 29 20:43:09.518: AB CD AB CD
*Dec 29 20:43:09.558: LSPV: Echo packet received: src 10.131.159.229,
dst 10.131.191.252, size 74
*Dec 29 20:43:09.558: AA BB CC 00 98 01 AA BB CC 00 FC 01 08 00 45 C0
*Dec 29 20:43:09.558: 00 3C 32 E9 00 00 FD 11 15 20 0A 83 9F E5 0A 83
*Dec 29 20:43:09.558: BF FC 0D AF 0D AF 00 28 D7 57 00 01 00 00 02 02
*Dec 29 20:43:09.558: 03 00 38 00 00 1D 00 00 00 01 C3 9B 10 5D 84 B3
*Dec 29 20:43:09.558: 95 84 C3 9B 10 5D 48 3D 50 78

To see the actual path chosen, you use the debug mpls lspv packet data command.

Note	The hashing algorithm is nondeterministic. Therefore, the selection of the address-start , address-end , and address-increment arguments for the destination keyword might not provide the expected results.