MPLS Layer 3 VPN PE-CE RIP

In my previous lessons I explained the basics of MPLS L3 VPNs and I explained in detail how to configure it. This time, we are going to configure MPLS VPN PE-CE with RIP as the routing protocol between the customer and service provider.

RIP is a simple routing protocol and easy to implement with MPLS VPN. Here’s the topology we will use:

This is the same topology that I used in my previous examples. Let’s see what the configuration is like…

Configuration

IGP and LDP

We will start with the configuration of the service provider network, we’ll have to configure an IGP (OSPF) and LDP on the PE1, P and PE2 router. Let’s add some loopbacks that are required for LDP:

PE1(config)#interface loopback 0
PE1(config-if)#ip address 2.2.2.2 255.255.255.255

P(config)#interface loopback 0
P(config-if)#ip address 3.3.3.3 255.255.255.255

PE2(config)#interface loopback 0
PE2(config-if)#ip address 4.4.4.4 255.255.255.255

Now we can configure OSPF:

PE1(config)#router ospf 1
PE1(config-router)#network 192.168.23.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
PE1(config-router)#network 2.2.2.2 0.0.0.0 area 0
PE1(config-router)#mpls ldp autoconfig

P(config)#router ospf 1
P(config-router)#network 192.168.23.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
P(config-router)#network 192.168.34.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
P(config-router)#network 3.3.3.3 0.0.0.0 area 0
P(config-router)#mpls ldp autoconfig

PE2(config)#router ospf 1
PE2(config-router)#network 192.168.34.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
PE2(config-router)#network 4.4.4.4 0.0.0.0 area 0
PE2(config-router)#mpls ldp autoconfig

This time I used the mpls ldp autoconfig command to automatically enable LDP for all OSPF enabled interfaces. Let’s do a quick check to see if LDP is enabled:

P#show mpls ldp neighbor | include Peer
    Peer LDP Ident: 2.2.2.2:0; Local LDP Ident 3.3.3.3:0
    Peer LDP Ident: 4.4.4.4:0; Local LDP Ident 3.3.3.3:0

Our P router in the middle has two neighbors so this is looking good. Just in case, let’s verify if there is connectivity between PE1 and PE2:

PE1#traceroute 4.4.4.4 source loopback 0
Type escape sequence to abort.
Tracing the route to 4.4.4.4
VRF info: (vrf in name/id, vrf out name/id)
  1 192.168.23.3 [MPLS: Label 17 Exp 0] 0 msec 0 msec 4 msec
  2 192.168.34.4 0 msec 0 msec *

PE1 and PE2 are able to reach each other and you can see we are using label switching.

VRFs on the PE Routers

Our next step in the configuration is to configure the VRFs. I will use a VRF called “CUSTOMER”, the route distinguisher and route-target will be 1:1.

PE1 & PE2
(config)#ip vrf CUSTOMER
(config-vrf)#rd 1:1
(config-vrf)#route-target both 1:1

Don’t forget to add the interfaces facing the customer routers into the VRF:

PE1(config)#interface FastEthernet 0/0
PE1(config-if)#ip vrf forwarding CUSTOMER
PE1(config-if)#ip address 192.168.12.2 255.255.255.0

PE2(config)#interface FastEthernet 0/1
PE2(config-if)#ip vrf forwarding CUSTOMER
PE2(config-if)#ip address 192.168.45.4 255.255.255.0

Let’s check if the PE routers are able to ping the CE routers from the VRF:

PE1#ping vrf CUSTOMER 192.168.12.1
Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 192.168.12.1, timeout is 2 seconds:
!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 1/2/4 ms

PE2#ping vrf CUSTOMER 192.168.45.5
Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 192.168.45.5, timeout is 2 seconds:
!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 1/2/4 ms

So far so good…

IBGP between PE1 and PE2

Our two PE routers require iBGP to exchange the VPNv4 routes. Let’s configure this: