Subject: About mpls forwarding

From: Shelon <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 08:45:31 +0530

Hi, All
I have a question about mpls forwarding.
When a unlabeled packet arrived (it need be forwarded), LSR should request to establish a lsp for this packet.
But it will take some time to establish the lsp. So, how to process the packet? Discard it or forward as normal 
unlabeled packet?

Regards
Shelon

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From: "Peter Ashwood-Smith" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 23:14:42 -0500

> But it will take some time to establish the lsp. So, how to process the packet? Discard it or forward as normal

  Sheldon,

  An MPLS LER (it's the label edge router that encapsulates the packet) probably
will not establish an LSP in response to traffic flow, at least it is not required
to. Initially you will see LER's that will pre-establish LSPs either through 
provisioning (CR-LDP/RSVP-TE) or as IP routes come and go (LDP). If no LSP is
available the packet is forwarded normally.

  That's not to say that some vendors will not offer the ability to locally 
measure flows and establish LSPs, it's just that this is not mandated by any
of the MPLS protocols so far.

  Hope this helps,

  Peter Ashwood-Smith

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From: "Mahesh V. Kelkar" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 08:48:07 -0500 (EST)

On Tue, 16 Nov 1999, Shelon wrote:

> But it will take some time to establish the lsp. So, how to process the packet? 

STORE IT INTO BUFFER

Discard it or forward as normal