Cisco & Juniper MPLS

[cwy]

Hi,

I am going to setup MPLS between some Cisco routers, switchs and Juniper routers. Is there anything need to pay attention to?

Thanks!

[Harold Ritter]

Generally speaking it should be good. I have seen a couple of customers deploying different services such as l2vpn, l3vpn, TE, 6PE without any major issue.

The only thing I can think of is the incompatibility between their implementation of mpls ping and traceroute and ours.

Hope this helps,

[pavlosd]

Hi,

Did you manage it to make it work?

Can you share a few parts of configuration from both platforms as examples?

[Harold Ritter]

Pavlos,

Sorry for the late response. When you say "did you manage to get it to work" are you referring to the mpls ping and traceroute portion? If so, the last time I tried it didn't work. There is a draft that has been co-authored by Cisco and Juniper (draft-ietf-pwe3-vccv) but apparently Juniper do not follow this draft to the letter, which causes interoperability issues.

I'm sure they will come up with software that will interoperate properly eventually.

Let me know if I answered your question,

[pavlosd]

Hi,

Yes. I was wondering if all the features are interoperable.

I wanted to ask, if cisco provides a technical documentation, even under TAC, with configuration examples (both platforms) on how to interoparate and moreover if there is an issue for Juniper to use RSVP for label exchange between Juniper and LDP across and between Cisco( or should Label distribution method be the same everywhere).

What was the OS versions used and on what platforms?

[Harold Ritter]

Most of the features are interoperable. It would be tedious to list all singles issues between the two vendors. If you have questions about a specific MPLS feature, it will be my pleasure to try to answer it.

As far as the sample configurations, the Cisco web site doesn't list the Juniper sample configurations just the same as the Juniper site doesn't list Cisco sample configurations. The sample configuration provided on Cisco web site should work with Juniper and vice versa.

Hope this helps,

[thomas.braun]

Hi,

attached is a interoperability dokument from Juniper.

It is for a Juniper M40 and a Cisco 12008 and 7513.

Maybe it will help you.

cu thomas

[pavlosd]

OK. I understand. I would appreciate if you could answer me, whether all routers should be running LDP in a mixed vendor environment or in between same vendor other Label Distribution protocols can be used.

[Harold Ritter]

It is possible to run LDP between Cisco and Juniper and TDP between Cisco routers but it would certainly be preferable to use only LDP between all routers to ease maintenance and troubleshooting.

I know quite a few Service Providers running LDP successfully in a multi vendor newtwork.

Let me know if I answered your question,

[pavlosd]

What if the other vendor is running RSVP or CR-LDP? Is it the same case as with Cisco TDP LDP?

[Harold Ritter]

I personally don't know of any vendor supporting MPLS and not supporting LDP. Running LDP (or RSVP for TE) network wide is definitely what I would recommend. Why support CR-LDP and LDP if you can get away with only running one.

Let me know if I answered your question,

[pavlosd]

Thanks.

[SREENATH R]

Hi Harold Ritter,

As a part of your conversation. I would like to clarify one doubt. As my knowledge I know if we want to enable MPLS

in Cisco routers we should enable CEF  first. Because then it can create adjaceny table and FIB and based on FIB it  can create LFIB. My doubt is how about the same in other vendor routers(  eg:Alcatel, Juniper). How those routers creates LFIB and eanble on routers. What all routing table structures they(other vendors)use to fuction MPLS and which table is equivalent of adjaceny table .I expect your precious reply for the same.

Thanks,