Now to get MP-BGP up and running on the MPLS lab. BGP-4 (as described in RFC 1771) can only carry IPv4 prefixes. RFC 2858 adds multiprotocol capability to BGP-4, which is needed to work with the vpnv4 routes that MPLS uses.
vpnv4?
In an MPLS network you may have customers with overlapping IP address space. In order to provide unique addressing, a vpnv4 prefix is used consisting of a Route Distinguisher (RD) followed by the IP prefix. The RD is 64 bits and typically in format AS:nn (or IP:nn). For example if you use an RD of 65001:1 and your IP prefix is 10.0.255.0/24 then the vpnv4 prefix is 65001:1:10.0.255.0/24.
The reason things are like this is because you have many customers sharing the same WAN, they are seperated by an MPLS VPN between their sites. This is done by using MP-BGP relationships as shown in the diagram below:
In this case I'm just setting up a single customer so the network looks like this:
Firstly I'll set up vanilla BGP-4 between PE1 and PE2, specifying to use the loopback interfaces for the peer relationships:
PE1#sh run | section bgp
router bgp 65001
no synchronization
bgp router-id 10.255.255.51
bgp log-neighbor-changes
neighbor 10.255.255.52 remote-as 65001
neighbor 10.255.255.52 update-source Loopback0
no auto-summary
PE1#show run | section bgp
router bgp 65001
no synchronization
bgp router-id 10.255.255.51
bgp log-neighbor-changes
neighbor 10.255.255.52 remote-as 65001
neighbor 10.255.255.52 update-source Loopback0
no auto-summary
When watching the debugs this gives:
*Mar 1 00:15:42.659: BGP: 10.255.255.52 passive open to 10.255.255.51
*Mar 1 00:15:42.659: BGP: 10.255.255.52 went from Active to Idle
*Mar 1 00:15:42.659: BGP: 10.255.255.52 went from Idle to Connect
*Mar 1 00:15:42.659: BGP: 10.255.255.52 rcv message type 1, length (excl. header) 26
*Mar 1 00:15:42.659: BGP: 10.255.255.52 rcv OPEN, version 4, holdtime 180 seconds
*Mar 1 00:15:42.659: BGP: 10.255.255.52 went from Connect to OpenSent
*Mar 1 00:15:42.659: BGP: 10.255.255.52 sending OPEN, version 4, my as: 65001, holdtime 180 seconds
*Mar 1 00:15:42.659: BGP: 10.255.255.52 rcv OPEN w/ OPTION parameter len: 16
*Mar 1 00:15:42.659: BGP: 10.255.255.52 rcvd OPEN w/ optional parameter type 2 (Capability) len 6
*Mar 1 00:15:42.659: BGP: 10.255.255.52 OPEN has CAP
PE1#ABILITY code: 1, length 4
*Mar 1 00:15:42.659: BGP: 10.255.255.52 OPEN has MP_EXT CAP for afi/safi: 1/1
*Mar 1 00:15:42.659: BGP: 10.255.255.52 rcvd OPEN w/ optional parameter type 2 (Capability) len 2
*Mar 1 00:15:42.659: BGP: 10.255.255.52 OPEN has CAPABILITY code: 128, length 0
*Mar 1 00:15:42.659: BGP: 10.255.255.52 OPEN has ROUTE-REFRESH capability(old) for all address-families
*Mar 1 00:15:42.659: BGP: 10.255.255.52 rcvd OPEN w/ optional parameter type 2 (Capability) len 2
*Mar 1 00:15:42.659: BGP: 10.255.255.52 OPEN has CAPABILITY code: 2, length 0
*Mar 1 00:15:42.659: BGP: 10.255.255.52 OPEN has ROUTE-REFRESH capability(new) for all address-families
BGP: 10.255.255.52 rcvd OPEN w/ remote AS 65001
*Mar 1 00:15:42.659: BGP: 10.255.255.52 went from OpenSent to OpenConfirm
*Mar 1 00:15:42.659: BGP: 10.255.255.52 send message type 1, length (incl. header) 45
*Mar 1 00:15:42.663: BGP: 10.255.255.52 went from OpenConfirm to Established
*Mar 1 00:15:42.663: %BGP-5-ADJCHANGE: neighbor 10.255.255.52 Up
The neighbor relationship is up
PE1#sh ip bgp nei
BGP neighbor is 10.255.255.52, remote AS 65001, internal link
BGP version 4, remote router ID 10.255.255.52
BGP state = Established, up for 00:01:42
Last read 00:00:41, last write 00:00:41, hold time is 180, keepalive interval is 60 seconds
Neighbor capabilities:
Route refresh: advertised and received(old & new)
Address family IPv4 Unicast: advertised and received
Two important bits are missing, the neighbor does not show capability "Address family VPNv4 Unicast" and the afi/safi values in the debug output don't show support for VPNv4.
*Mar 1 00:15:42.659: BGP: 10.255.255.52 OPEN has MP_EXT CAP for afi/safi: 1/1
The Address Family Identifier (AFI) and Subsequent Address Family Identifier (SAFI) values can be found on the IANA website: AFI and SAFI. An AFI of 1 is IPv4, SAFI of 1 is NRLI for unicast forwarding and SAFI of 128 is for labelled VPN forwarding.
To activate the vpnv4 support, a bit more configuration is required:
PE1#show run | section bgp
router bgp 65001
bgp router-id 10.255.255.51
bgp log-neighbor-changes
neighbor 10.255.255.52 remote-as 65001
neighbor 10.255.255.52 update-source Loopback0
!
address-family ipv4
neighbor 10.255.255.52 activate
no auto-summary
no synchronization
exit-address-family
!
address-family vpnv4
neighbor 10.255.255.52 activate
neighbor 10.255.255.52 send-community extended
exit-address-family
router bgp 65001
bgp router-id 10.255.255.52
bgp log-neighbor-changes
neighbor 10.255.255.51 remote-as 65001
neighbor 10.255.255.51 update-source Loopback0
!
address-family ipv4
neighbor 10.255.255.51 activate
no auto-summary
no synchronization
exit-address-family
!
address-family vpnv4
neighbor 10.255.255.51 activate
neighbor 10.255.255.51 send-community extended
exit-address-family
Now the debug line in question shows:
*Mar 1 00:21:31.183: BGP: 10.255.255.52 OPEN has MP_EXT CAP for afi/safi: 1/128
And the neighbor capabilities are listed as:
PE1#show ip bgp neigh
BGP neighbor is 10.255.255.52, remote AS 65001, internal link
BGP version 4, remote router ID 10.255.255.52
BGP state = Established, up for 00:00:54
Last read 00:00:54, last write 00:00:54, hold time is 180, keepalive interval is 60 seconds
Neighbor capabilities:
Route refresh: advertised and received(old & new)
Address family IPv4 Unicast: advertised and received
Address family VPNv4 Unicast: advertised and received
This gives us working MP-BGP between the two PE routers, but nothing is actually being advertised over BGP just yet because there are no redistribute or network statements.
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