Feature Description
In the existing platforms (VPC-DI, ASR 5500), the boxer supports MPLS, which uses the underlying data plane forwarder to switch MPLS traffic. In ASR 5500, the NP4c network processor generates and processes MPLS traffic while in VPC-DI, the IFTask generates and processes MPLS traffic.
This feature enables MPLS support on UPF. VPC-SI uses VPP as the data plane forwarder. VPP supports and provides multiple data plane features that include the MPLS stack as a separate graph node. VPP encapsulates and decapsulates subscriber traffic with MPLS labels. This helps to differentiate between different customer VRFs and support many corporate APNs having different addressing models and requirements.
UPF supports the following functionalities for MPLS:
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Uses the VPP MPLS stack to send the MPLS labeled packet
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Uses the VPP MPLS stack to process the incoming labeled MPLS packet
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MPLS on UPF uses only MP-BGP as the label distribution protocol
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Supports VPPCTL CLI commands to display FTN and ILM tables that are in VPP for debugging and comparing values with boxer configuration