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
ℵ0
12
Sigcomm Papers
6
1996 1997 1998 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Outrageous 2003 © 2003, Bruce Davie
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MPLS Trends
MPLS Books Published (p.a.)
MPLS Working Groups
MPLS Internet Drafts
ℵ0
12
6
0 Sigcomm Papers
1996 1997 1998 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Outrageous 2003 © 2003, Bruce Davie
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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