Table Of Contents

Multiclass Multilink PPP

Feature Overview

Benefits

Restrictions

Related Features and Technologies

Related Documents

Supported Platforms

Supported Standards, MIBs, and RFCs

Prerequisites

Configuration Tasks

Configuring MLP LFI on a Bundle

Configuring MCMP on a Member Link

Verifying MCMP

Configuration Examples

Configuring MCMP on a Dialer Example

MCMP and MLP Interleaving and Queueing for Real-Time Traffic Examples

Command Reference

Multiclass Multilink PPP

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Feature History

Release	Modification
12.2(13)T	This feature was introduced.

This document describes the Multiclass Multilink PPP feature in Cisco IOS Release 12.2(13)T. It includes the following sections:

•Feature Overview

•Supported Platforms

•Supported Standards, MIBs, and RFCs

•Prerequisites

•Configuration Tasks

•Configuration Examples

•Command Reference

Feature Overview

Previous implementations of Cisco IOS Multilink PPP (MLP) include support for Link Fragmentation Interleaving (LFI). This feature allows the delivery of delay-sensitive packets, such as the packets of a Voice call, to be expedited by omitting the PPP Multilink Protocol header and sending the packets as raw PPP packets in between the fragments of larger data packets. This feature works well on bundles consisting of a single link. However, when the bundle contains multiple links there is no way to keep the interleaved packets in sequence with respect to each other.

The Multiclass Multilink PPP (MCMP) feature in Cisco IOS Release 12.2(13)T addresses the limitations of MLP LFI on bundles containing multiple links by introducing multiple data classes. Normal data traffic and delay-sensitive data traffic are divided into Class 0 and Class 1, respectively. Class 0 data traffic is subject to fragmentation just as regular multilink packets are. Class 1 data traffic can be interleaved but never fragmented. The next transmit sequence number, expected sequence number, unassigned fragment list, working packet, lost fragment timer, fast-switching mode, and all statistics are managed per class, rather than for the bundle as a whole.

Benefits

The Multiclass Multilink PPP feature in Cisco IOS Release 12.2(13)T allows rapid delivery of real-time data over a bundle containing multiple links without loss of sequencing.

Restrictions

The ppp multilink multiclass command must be configured on each link that will be joining the bundle. Failure to configure this command could result in the peer refusing to allow mismatched links to join the bundle. The first link to join the bundle will determine whether MCMP is in effect for the bundle. Each subsequent link must negotiate the same MCMP parameters in order to join the bundle.

Because real-time traffic is encapsulated with multilink headers, the receiver will be required to buffer the packets when they arrive out of sequence. Therefore, the differential delay between the links must be small relative to the tolerable delay for such traffic. Otherwise, packets may be subject to additional delay while the receiver awaits the arrival of earlier sequence numbers sent over other links in the bundle.

The maximum number of links supported for an MCMP bundle is 64.

The Prefix Elision option specified in RFC 2686 is not supported.

Related Features and Technologies

•Multilink PPP

Related Documents

•Cisco IOS Dial Technologies Configuration Guide, Release 12.2

•Cisco IOS Dial Technologies Command Reference, Release 12.2

Supported Platforms

•Cisco 2600 series

•Cisco 3600 series

•Cisco 3700 series

•Cisco 7200 series

•Cisco AS5300

•Cisco AS5350

•Cisco AS5400

Determining Platform Support Through Cisco Feature Navigator

Cisco IOS software is packaged in feature sets that are supported on specific platforms. To get updated information regarding platform support for this feature, access Cisco Feature Navigator. Cisco Feature Navigator dynamically updates the list of supported platforms as new platform support is added for the feature.

Cisco Feature Navigator is a web-based tool that enables you to quickly determine which Cisco IOS software images support a specific set of features and which features are supported in a specific Cisco IOS image. You can search by feature or release. Under the release section, you can compare releases side by side to display both the features unique to each software release and the features in common.

To access Cisco  Feature Navigator, you must have an account on Cisco.com. If you have forgotten or lost your account information, send a blank e-mail to cco-locksmith@cisco.com. An automatic check will verify that your e-mail address is registered with Cisco.com. If the check is successful, account details with a new random password will be e-mailed to you. Qualified users can establish an account on Cisco.com by following the directions found at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/register

Cisco Feature Navigator is updated regularly when major Cisco IOS software releases and technology releases occur. For the most current information, go to the Cisco Feature Navigator home page at the following URL:

http://www.cisco.com/go/fn

Availability of Cisco IOS Software Images

Platform support for particular Cisco IOS software releases is dependent on the availability of the software images for those platforms. Software images for some platforms may be deferred, delayed, or changed without prior notice. For updated information about platform support and availability of software images for each Cisco IOS software release, refer to the online release notes or, if supported, Cisco Feature Navigator.

Supported Standards, MIBs, and RFCs

Standards

None

MIBs

None

To locate and download MIBs for selected platforms, Cisco IOS releases, and feature sets, use Cisco MIB Locator found at the following URL:

http://tools.cisco.com/ITDIT/MIBS/servlet/index

If Cisco  MIB Locator does not support the MIB information that you need, you can also obtain a list of supported MIBs and download MIBs from the Cisco  MIBs page at the following URL:

http://www.cisco.com/public/sw-center/netmgmt/cmtk/mibs.shtml

To access Cisco MIB Locator, you must have an account on Cisco.com. If you have forgotten or lost your account information, send a blank e-mail to cco-locksmith@cisco.com. An automatic check will verify that your e-mail address is registered with Cisco.com. If the check is successful, account details with a new random password will be e-mailed to you. Qualified users can establish an account on Cisco.com by following the directions found at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/register

RFCs

•RFC 2686, The Multi-Class Extension to Multi-Link PPP

Prerequisites

The dialer interface, BRI interface, PRI interface, multilink interface, or virtual template must be configured, and PPP encapsulation must be enabled. For information on completing these tasks, refer to the Cisco IOS Dial Technologies Configuration Guide, Release 12.2.

MLP LFI must be configured on the bundle. See the section "Configuring MLP LFI on a Bundle" in this document.

Configuration Tasks

See the following sections for configuration tasks for the Multiclass Multilink PPP feature. Each task in the list is identified as either required or optional.

•Configuring MLP LFI on a Bundle (required)

•Configuring MCMP on a Member Link (required)

•Verifying MCMP (optional)

Configuring MLP LFI on a Bundle

To configure MLP LFI on a dialer, multilink, or virtual template, use the following commands beginning in interface configuration mode:

	Command	Purpose
Step 1	Router(config-if)# ppp multilink	Enables MLP.
Step 2	Router(config-if)# ppp multilink interleave	Enables interleaving of packets among the fragments of larger packets on an MLP bundle.
Step 3	Router(config-if)# ppp multilink fragment delay milliseconds	Specifies a maximum size, in units of time, for packet fragments on an MLP bundle.
Step 4	Router(config-if)# ip rtp reserve lowest-udp-port range-of-ports [maximum-bandwidth]	Reserves a special queue for real-time packet flows to specified destination User Datagram Protocol (UDP) ports, allowing real-time traffic to have higher priority than other flows.
Step 5	Router(config-if)# exit	Exits interface configuration mode.
Step 6	Router(config)# multilink virtual-template number	For virtual templates only, applies the virtual template to the multilink bundle.1

1 This step is not used for dialer interfaces.

Configuring MCMP on a Member Link

To configure MCMP on a configured and operational member link, use the following commands in interface configuration mode:

	Command	Purpose
Step 1	Router(config-if)# ppp multilink	Enables MLP.
Step 2	Router(config-if)# ppp multilink multiclass	Enables MCMP on an interface.

Verifying MCMP

To verify that the Multiclass Multilink PPP feature is configured correctly, enter the show ppp multilink EXEC command. The following output includes class-specific information for the PPP Multilink bundles:

Router# show ppp multilink

Virtual-Access3, bundle name is bundle1 

Bundle up for 01:59:35, 1/255 load, 2 receive classes, 2 transmit classes 

Receive buffer limit 12192 bytes per class, frag timeout 1524 ms 

Dialer interface is Dialer1 

!

Receive Class 0: 

0/0 fragments/bytes in reassembly list 

0 lost fragments, 0 reordered 

0/0 discarded fragments/bytes, 0 lost received 

0x0 received sequence 

!

Receive Class 1: 

0/0 fragments/bytes in reassembly list 

0 lost fragments, 0 reordered 

0/0 discarded fragments/bytes, 0 lost received 

0x0 received sequence 

!

Transmit Class 0: 

0x8 sent sequence 

!

Transmit Class 1: 

0x0 sent sequence 

!

Member links: 1 (max not set, min not set) 

BR2/0:1, since 01:59:35, 80 weight, 72 frag size

Configuration Examples

This section provides the following configuration example:

•Configuring MCMP on a Dialer Example

•MCMP and MLP Interleaving and Queueing for Real-Time Traffic Examples

Configuring MCMP on a Dialer Example

The following partial example configures a dialer for MCMP; it does not show the configuration of the physical interfaces:

interface Dialer0

 ip address 10.0.0.2 255.0.0.0

 encapsulation ppp

 dialer in-band

 dialer idle-timeout 500

 dialer map ip 10.0.0.1 name remote broadcast 81012345678901

 dialer load-threshold 30 either

 dialer-group 1

 ppp authentication chap

 ppp multilink

 ppp multilink multiclass

MCMP and MLP Interleaving and Queueing for Real-Time Traffic Examples

The following example enables MLP interleaving and MCMP on a dialer interface that controls a rotary group of BRI interfaces. This configuration permits IP packets to trigger calls.

interface BRI 0

 description connected into a rotary group 

 encapsulation ppp

 dialer rotary-group 1

!

interface BRI 1

 no ip address

 encapsulation ppp

 dialer rotary-group 1

!

interface BRI 2

 encapsulation ppp

 dialer rotary-group 1

!

interface BRI 3

 no ip address

 encapsulation ppp

 dialer rotary-group 1

! 

interface BRI 4

 encapsulation ppp

 dialer rotary-group 1

! 

interface Dialer 0

 description Dialer group controlling the BRIs

 ip address 10.1.1.1 255.255.255.0

 encapsulation ppp

 dialer map ip 10.1.1.2 name remote 14802616900

 dialer-group 1

 ppp authentication chap

! Enables Multilink Multiclass PPP interleaving on the dialer interface and reserves 

! a special queue.

 ppp multilink

 ppp multilink multiclass

 ppp multilink interleave

 ip rtp reserve 32768 20 1000

! Keeps fragments of large packets small enough to ensure delay of 20 ms or less.

 ppp multilink fragment delay 20 

dialer-list 1 protocol ip permit 

The following example defines a virtual interface template that enables MLP interleaving and a maximum real-time traffic delay of 20 milliseconds. The bundle interface will be a virtual access interface cloned from the virtual template. MCMP is then configured on a member link, Serial0.

interface virtual-template 1 

 ip unnumbered ethernet 0

 ppp multilink

 ppp multilink interleave

 ppp multilink fragment delay 20 

 ip rtp interleave 32768 20 1000

!

multilink virtual-template 1

!

interface Serial0

 encapsulation ppp

 ppp authentication chap

 ppp multilink

 ppp multilink multiclass

The following example configures MLP interleaving and a maximum real-time traffic delay of 20 milliseconds on a multilink interface. MCMP is then configured on a member link, Serial1, and the member link is restricted to joining only the designated multilink group interface.

interface Multilink1 

 ip address 10.2.3.4 255.255.255.0 

 ppp multilink 

 ppp multilink interleave 

 ppp multilink fragment delay 20

!

interface Serial1

 encapsulation ppp 

 ppp authentication chap 

 ppp multilink 

 ppp multilink multiclass 

 ppp multilink group 1

Command Reference

The following commands are introduced or modified in the feature or features documented in this module. For information about these commands, see the Cisco IOS Dial Technologies Command Reference at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/dial/command/reference/dia_book.html. For information about all Cisco IOS commands, go to the Command Lookup Tool at http://tools.cisco.com/Support/CLILookup or to the Cisco IOS Master Commands List.

•ppp multilink multiclass

•show ppp multilin

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Any Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and phone numbers used in this document are not intended to be actual addresses and phone numbers. Any examples, command display output, network topology diagrams, and other figures included in the document are shown for illustrative purposes only. Any use of actual IP addresses or phone numbers in illustrative content is unintentional and coincidental.

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