MPLS Considered Helpful Bruce Davie bsd@cisco.com Outrageous 2003 1 • I’m not bitter Outrageous 2003 © 2003, Bruce Davie 2 MPLS • Widely believed to stand for “Multiprotocol Label Switching” Would it have been more popular if “IP switching” were not already taken? • But in reality MPLS is short for “Minneapolis” Outrageous 2003 © 2003, Bruce Davie 3 The Midwestern Grassy Knoll • As MPLS becomes more and more dominant in the IETF, the IETF keeps circling back to Minneapolis • Coincidence or conspiracy? You be the judge. Outrageous 2003 © 2003, Bruce Davie 4 MPLS Trends MPLS Books Published (p.a.) MPLS Working Groups MPLS Internet Drafts 12 Sigcomm Papers 6 1996 1997 1998 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Outrageous 2003 © 2003, Bruce Davie 5 MPLS Trends MPLS Books Published (p.a.) MPLS Working Groups MPLS Internet Drafts 12 6 0 Sigcomm Papers 1996 1997 1998 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Outrageous 2003 © 2003, Bruce Davie 6 MPLS Benefits #1 & 2 • An intellectual honeypot for demonstrably inferior research • Simplication of Sigcomm Review process If (title contains “MPLS”) then strong_reject = true else review paper • Research on more advanced algorithms possible Outrageous 2003 © 2003, Bruce Davie 7 • I’m not bitter Outrageous 2003 © 2003, Bruce Davie 8 The Shenker Experiment • Davie, B., and Shenker, S. The impact of steganography on service differentiation: a game-theoretic approach • Davie, B., and Shenker, S. Solving the major problems in routing, addressing, congestion and scaling using MPLS: a game-theoretic approach Outrageous 2003 © 2003, Bruce Davie 9 MPLS Benefit 3: TTL hiding • Providers can hide the internal topology from pesky grad students • Moving from ATM to MPLS carries no “increased hop count penalty” • Ongoing research: TTL incrementing for IP Outrageous 2003 © 2003, Bruce Davie 10 MPLS Benefit 4: Spam Protection • Need an IP address to receive spam • I’m rejecting all packets that have an IP header right above the L2 header • Here is my MPLS label – don’t tell the spammers Appplication data (generic viagra advert) Transport Header IP Header (optional) MPLS label = 01100110001101100101 L2 Header Outrageous 2003 © 2003, Bruce Davie 11 MPLS-based spam protection • MPLS labels are link-local in scope If you tell my label to spammers, I can pick another one (new business card needed) • Research How you ensure the right label is on your packets when they arrive at my link Virtual business card distribution protocols Outrageous 2003 © 2003, Bruce Davie 12 • I’m not bitter Outrageous 2003 © 2003, Bruce Davie 13