Welcome, Guest!

| Log in | Register

Blog Cheat Sheets Captures Armory Toolbox Bookshelf Contact Me

Disabling MPLS TTL propagation

By stretch | Monday, December 22, 2008 at 7:19 a.m. UTC

As you're probably aware, the IP header includes a time-to-live (TTL) field which serves as a
hop counter. At every routed hop, the TTL is decremented by one; if the TTL reaches zero
before the packet reaches its destination, the packet is discarded and (optionally) an ICMP
TTL exceeded message is sent to its source. MPLS labels also have a TTL field:

MPLS routers copy the TTL of an IP packet when it enters a label-switched path (LSP), such
that an IP packet with a TTL of 255 receives an MPLS label with a TTL of 255. By default,
IOS routers will decrement the MPLS TTL of an MPLS-encapsulated packet in place of the
IP TTL, at every label-switched hop.

PDFmyURL easily turns web pages and even entire websites into PDF!
 Cisco calls behavior this TTL propagation. Because the MPLS TTL is copied (or
"propagated") from the IP TTL, a traceroute from R1 to R6 in the above topology will list
every hop in the path, be it routed or label-switched. (Note that the final leg of the MPLS
portion of the path, from R4 to R5, is not label-switched due to penultimate hop popping.)

R1# traceroute 10.0.56.6

Type escape sequence to abort.

Tracing the route to 10.0.56.6

1 10.0.12.2 28 msec 36 msec 12 msec

2 10.0.23.3 84 msec 28 msec 68 msec
3 10.0.34.4 68 msec 68 msec 68 msec
4 10.0.45.5 68 msec 76 msec 60 msec
5 10.0.56.6 60 msec * 68 msec

PDFmyURL easily turns web pages and even entire websites into PDF!
 Cisco IOS provides the option to disable MPLS TTL propagation, with the no mpls ip
propagate-ttl command under global configuration. If applied, this command should be
applied to all routers in the MPLS domain.

R2(config)# no mpls ip propagate-ttl

R3(config)# no mpls ip propagate-ttl

R4(config)# no mpls ip propagate-ttl

R5(config)# no mpls ip propagate-ttl

With TTL propagation disabled, the MPLS TTL is calculated independent of the IP TTL, and
the IP TTL remains constant for the length of the LSP. Because the MPLS TTL never drops
to zero, none of the LSP hops (R2-R3 and R3-R4) trigger an ICMP TTL exceeded message
and consequently these hops are not recorded in the traceroute from R1:

R1# traceroute 10.0.56.6

Type escape sequence to abort.

Tracing the route to 10.0.56.6

1 10.0.12.2 16 msec 12 msec 12 msec

2 10.0.45.5 60 msec 60 msec 60 msec
3 10.0.56.6 60 msec * 52 msec

PDFmyURL easily turns web pages and even entire websites into PDF!
 About the Author
Jeremy Stretch is a network engineer living in the Raleigh-
Durham, North Carolina area. He is known for his blog and cheat
sheets here at Packet Life. You can reach him by email or follow
him on Twitter.

Posted in MPLS, Routing

Comments

Pamelatalt (guest) First of all congratulation for such a great site. I learned a
May 23, 2009 at 4:38 p.m. UTC lot reading article here today. I will make sure i visit this site
once a day so i can learn more.

Gaurav Jhawar (guest) It is realy a good presentation to get the concept of

July 19, 2009 at 10:49 a.m. UTC
traceroute and no mpls ip propagate-ttl.

zippy (guest) Tested this with vrf's did not work for me. I will be t/s it.
January 13, 2010 at 6:43 p.m.
UTC
Durga (guest) A lucid explanation of IP vs MPLS TTL concept via pictures.
April 24, 2010 at 6:07 p.m. UTC Thank you for a great site!

Graham (guest) I had labbed this up and wondered why my last hop within
April 14, 2011 at 10:05 p.m. the MPLS cloud was still showing up on the traceroute. I
UTC googled it and came here, and found the answer -
penultimate hop popping. Of course, it all makes sense
now!

Dmitry (guest) The "challenge" intstead of captcha is wonderfull. Keep on

August 18, 2011 at 10:27 a.m. pressing F5.
UTC

PDFmyURL easily turns web pages and even entire websites into PDF!
 Leandro Domingues Great Explanation, better that I found in the internet
(guest)
October 25, 2011 at 4:48 p.m. Domingues
UTC CCIE R&S#29765
leandro.domingues.almeida@gmail.com

Kishore Chennupati Good stuff Jeremy,

(guest)
December 22, 2011 at 3:14 a.m. Your explanations are the to the point and clear. Great Job.
UTC I do come and visit this site every now and then.

Regards,
Kishore

sri (guest) soo clear about TTL in MPLS

March 16, 2015 at 12:37 p.m.
UTC Thank you and i am after you for further updates .

Hansen B.kannie (guest) Thanks Stretch. Your explanation clears this for me.
September 26, 2016 at 12:45 Appreciated you Sir.
p.m. UTC

Comments have closed for this article due to its age.

Home | Blog | Cheat Sheets | Captures | Armory | Toolbox | Bookshelf | Contact Me | About

More cool stuff

networking-forum.com | r/Networking | Internetworkpro | firewall.cx | Network Engineering @ StackExchange

PDFmyURL easily turns web pages and even entire websites into PDF!