final year project

1
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING
SPECIALTY IN TELECOMMUNICATION
PROJECT REPORT ON:
SUBMITTED BY
SHIOLA YOTI MOBELLA KOFI
FE12A166
prunelleshon@gmail.com
A Research Project submitted to the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, in
partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Bachelor of Engineering
(B. Eng.) in Telecommunication.
Under the supervision of:
Date of Submission: 23/09/2016
Design and implementation of quality of service for the transportation
of Digital Terrestrial Television in an MPLS multicast network access
Dr. FOTSING JANVIER
UNIVERSITY OF BUEA FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
AND TECHNOLOGY

DEDICATION
This dedicated to my parents Mr. KOFI SANGI GREGORY and MRS. KOFI
COMFORT ENO of blessed memory and to the rest of my family and friends for
being there and so supportive for that matter.

DECLARATION
I hereby declare that the internship report titled “DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF
QUALITY OF SERVICE FOR THE TRANSPORTATION OF DIGITAL TERRESTRIAL
TELEVISION IN AN MPLS MULTICAST NETWORK” submitted to the Faculty of
Engineering and Technology of the University of Buea is a record of an original work done by
me under the guidance of Dr Fotsing Janvier my academic supervisor.
The information and data given is authentic to the best of my knowledge. This internship report
is not submitted to any other university or institution for the award of any degree, diploma or
published any time before.
Student Academic Supervisor

ABSTRACT
There has been a swift diversion from the analog system to the digital system for efficient
transmission of information (signals) in recent years. This has increased competition in the
market to provide more efficient ways to provide better transmission television in terms of
quality and speed. Nowadays the digital terrestrial television (DTTV) is fast replacing the
digital satellite television (DSTV) which needed a satellite dish as well as a decoder. Therefore
service providers must distribute large volumes of video across backbone networks to an
increasing number of distribution sites (often referred to as video hub offices or video serving
offices) and subscribers. A suitable protocol is needed in other to achieve this while
maintaining a good quality of service (QoS).
The aim of the project is to design and implement the transportation of Digital Terrestrial
Television signals in an MPLS multicast network to provide a good quality of service in terms
of bandwidth and security. My project will therefore entail the use of the MPLS concept to
realise such a system.
To establish the MPLS network a number of other protocols will be used like the EIGRP, BGP
and OSPF to ensure connectivity between the source and receivers. The MPLS is used only in
the backbone of the network.
This was a whole new experience as it had to do solely with networking which placed a limiting
factor as a lot of time was used to understand the concepts of all protocols used, the
establishment of the network and the operation of the software.
With the realisation of the project, there was full connectivity between all routers in the
backbone and between the source and all receivers (customers) thereby achieving the aim. A
back up tunnel was setup to avoid system failure due to breakdown of a router.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have been possible without the kind
support and help of many individuals and organizations. I would like to extend my sincere
thanks to all of them.
My profound gratitude goes to the dean of my Faculty Prof Tanyi Emmanuel for the support
in making industrial attachment for me a dream come true and for guiding us thus far. I remain
ever grateful to you and your staff.
I am highly indebted to my supervisor for his guidance and constant supervision as well as for
providing necessary information regarding the project & also for his support in completing the
project.
I would like to express my gratitude towards my family for their kind co-operation and
encouragement which help me in completion of this project and for giving me such attention
and time. Their challenging questions substantially improved the format and contents of the
project and this report.

TABLE OF CONTENT
DEDICATION............................................................................................................................................2
DECLARATION .........................................................................................................................................3
ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................................4
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.............................................................................................................................5
TABLE OF CONTENT ................................................................................................................................6
GENERAL INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................8
LIST OF FIGURES....................................................................................................................................10
TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS....................................................................................................................11
CHAPTER1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND OVERVIEW OF THE PROJECT ...................................................13
1.1 INTRODUCTION AND MOTIVATION .....................................................................13
Different Types of Video [3] ...............................................................................................14
1.2 LITERATURE REVIEW ..............................................................................................14
1.2.1 MPLS Basics [5] ....................................................................................................................14
1.2.2 MPLS VPN Terminology........................................................................................................16
1.2.3 MPLS-Based VPNs [8]...........................................................................................................19
1.2.4 QoS Parameters ...................................................................................................................19
1.2.5 Video Distribution and Point-to-multipoint LSPs [1] ...........................................................20
1.2.6 Baseline Requirements for Broadcast Content Distribution [2] ..........................................21
1.2.7 Efficient Transport of Broadcast Video................................................................................22
1.2.8 Replication in Point-to-multipoint LSPs ...............................................................................23
1.3 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ...........................................................................................24
1.4 PROJECT PLAN ...........................................................................................................24
1.5. SUMMARY..................................................................................................................25
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY AND DESIGN...........................................................................................26
2.1 INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................26
2.2 DESIGN.........................................................................................................................26
2.2.1 Designing the IP and MPLS Transport Layer.............................................................26
2.2.2 Project Topology ..................................................................................................................26
2.3 METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................27
2.3.1 GNS3.....................................................................................................................................27

2.3.3 Implementing Routing Regions............................................................................................27
2.3.4 Protocols Used .....................................................................................................................28
CHAPTER 3: IMPLEMENTATION, TESTS, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION OF THE MPLS NETWORK............32
3.1 INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................32
3.2 REQUIREMENTS FOR PROJECT REALISATION...................................................32
3.3 RESULTS ......................................................................................................................36
GENERAL CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................40
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................41
APPENDIX..............................................................................................................................................42

GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Digital terrestrial television (DTTV or DTT) is a technological evolution of broadcast
television and an advancement over analog television. DTTV broadcasts land-based
(terrestrial) signals. The advantages of digital terrestrial television, are similar to digital versus
analog in platforms such as cable, satellite, and all telecommunications; the efficient use of
spectrum and provision of more capacity than analog, better quality images, and lower
operating costs for broadcast and transmission (after the initial upgrade costs). A terrestrial
implementation of digital television (DTV) technology uses an aerial to broadcast to a
conventional television antenna (or aerial) instead of a satellite dish or cable
television connection.
DTTV broadcasting uses the same media as the older analog terrestrial TV signals. The most
common circuits use coaxial cable at the subscriber end to connect the network to the TV
receiver. Fibre optic and/or microwave links may be used between the studio and the broadcast
station, or between the broadcast station and local community networks. DTTV provides a
clearer picture and superior sound quality when compared to analog TV, with less interference.
DTTV offers far more channels, thus providing the viewer with a greater variety of programs
to choose from. DTTV can be viewed on personal computers. Using a split-screen format, a
computer user can surf the Web while watching TV. In regions not served by cable, DTTV is
generally impractical. For this reason, digital satellite TV (DSTV) has become popular,
especially in rural areas and in some small towns. A few city dwellers prefer DSTV even when
they have the option of subscribing to DTTV. [1]
Video is quickly becoming a major component of the enterprise traffic mix. Both streaming
and pre-positioned video has implications on the network that can substantially affect overall
performance. Understanding the structure of video datagrams and the requirements they place
on the network will assist network administrators with implementing a Media Ready Network.
[2]
Professional video over IP systems use some existing standard video codec to reduce the
program material to a bitstream , and then to use an Internet Protocol (IP) network to carry that
bitstream encapsulated in a stream of IP packets. This is typically accomplished using some
protocol. [2]

Carrying professional video over IP networks has special challenges compared to most non-
time-critical IP traffic. Many of these problems are similar to those encountered invoice, but to
a much higher level of engineering requirements. In particular, there are very strict quality of
service requirements which must be fulfilled for use in professional broadcast environments.
Broadcast video lends itself well to take advantage of the bandwidth savings offered by
multicast. This has been in place in many networks for years. Recent improvements to multicast
simplify the deployment on the network. Multicast will play a role going forward. However,
multicast is not used in all situations. A picture is worth a thousand words and video is 30
pictures per second. This can dramatically impact the performance of the network if planning
does not properly account for this additional load. Good guidance is needed in implementing a
network platform to ensure video is transported effectively and efficiently. [3]

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1:MPLS packet transportation...................................................................................................16
Figure 2: MPLS VPN architecture........................................................................................................17
Figure 3: Illustration of virtual circuits in MPLS network ...................................................................18
Figure 4: Packet transmission through MPLS network ........................................................................18
Figure 5: Broadcast content over point-to-multipoint LSP...................................................................20
Figure 6: Replication of Point-to-multipoint LSP.................................................................................23
Figure 7: Point-to-multipoint packet transportation..............................................................................24
Figure 8: GNS3 project topology..........................................................................................................26
Figure 9: GSN3 Software......................................................................................................................27
Figure 10: OSPF Illustration.................................................................................................................29
Figure 11: EIGRP Illustration...............................................................................................................31
Figure 12: OSPF configuration.............................................................................................................33
Figure 13: VRF configuration and testing ............................................................................................34
Figure 14: EIGRP configuration...........................................................................................................35
Figure 15: R2 IP route table and network establishment ......................................................................36
Figure 16: VRF creation and testing.....................................................................................................37

TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS
ACCRONYMS MEANING
ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode
ASBR Autonomous System Boundary Router
BGP Border Gateway Protocol
CE Customer Edge
DSTV Digital Satellite Television
DTT Digital Terrestrial Television
DTTV Digital Terrestrial Television
DTV Digital Television
EIGRP Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol
IETF Internet Engineering Task Force
GNS Graphical Network Simulator
IP Internet Protocol
LSP Label-Switched Paths
MPLS Multi-Protocol Label Switching
OPEX Operational Excellence
OSPF Open Shortest Path First
P router Provider Router
PE Provider Edge
PVC Permanent Virtual Circuits

RIB Routing Information Base
RIP Routing Information Protocol
QoS Quality Of Service
SONET/SDH
SVC Switched Virtual Circuits
VC Virtual Circuits
VPN Virtual Private Network
VPNv4 Virtual Private Network Version 4
VRF Virtual Routing and Forwarding Table
WAN Wide Area Network

CHAPTER1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND OVERVIEW OF THE
PROJECT
1.1 INTRODUCTION AND MOTIVATION
While Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) today have competition from other forms of distributing
linear television, and recently also from non-linear technologies as DTT is still the preferred
method to serve users with the TV media in many countries. This is due to the fact that DTT
is a cost effective distribution form with very high penetration, and it is fully controlled by
the policy makers of the respective countries. But the increased competition from other
distribution methods sets DTT under a transformation pressure. End users are looking for
more interactivity also when consuming traditional TV; they want to view TV on their mobile
platforms. [1] [2]
This transformation aspect must be catered for in the transport infrastructure. It shall not be
necessary to do a forklift upgrade of the infrastructure when new services and formats are
introduced. The typical challenges the broadcaster or service provider experiences when
planning for a DTT transport infrastructure can be summarized as:
 Rapid deployment – New nationwide infrastructure must be deployed in a short time
putting requirement on simple, reliable provisioning, capacity planning and node
configuration.
 Reliability – National TV distribution is mission critical to governments. These systems
require advanced redundancy and disaster recovery schemes to handle network faults.
 Efficiency – It must be easy to operate the network since OPEX (operational
excellence) costs will deflect capital needed to produce TV programming.
 Multi-Service – To have a fast Return of Investment on the infrastructure, several
services are desired to be accommodated in the infrastructure without interfering with
the critical TV transport. This is specifically a challenge when mixing distribution,
contribution and IT traffic.
 Transport properties – The platform must also handle large scale multicast, efficient
usage of link capacity and reliable distribution of time to transmitters for Single
Frequency Networks. [1]

Different Types of Video [3]
There are several broad attributes that can be used to describe video. For example, video can
be categorized as real time or pre-recorded, streaming or pre-positioned, and high resolution or
low resolution. The network load is dependant on the type of video being sent. Pre-recorded,
pre-positioned, low resolution video is little more than a file transfer while real-time streaming
video demands a high performance network. Many generic video applications fall somewhere
in between. This allows non-real-time streaming video applications to work acceptably over
the public Internet. Tuning the network and media encoders are both important aspects of
deploying video on an IP network.
1.2 LITERATURE REVIEW
1.2.1 MPLS Basics [5]
MPLS is best summarized as a “Layer 2.5 networking protocol”. Multi-Protocol Label
Switching (MPLS) was originally presented as a way of improving the forwarding speed of
routers but is now emerging as a crucial standard technology that offers new capabilities for
large scale IP networks. Traffic engineering, the ability of network operators to dictate the path
that traffic takes through their network, and Virtual Private Network support are examples of
two key applications where MPLS is superior to any currently available IP technology.
Although MPLS was conceived as being independent of Layer 2, much of the excitement
generated by MPLS revolves around its promise to provide a more effective means of
deploying IP networks across ATM-based WAN backbones. The Internet Engineering Task
Force is developing MPLS with draft standards expected by the end of 1998. MPLS is viewed
by some as one of the most important network developments of the 1990's. This article will
explain why MPLS is generating such interest.
The essence of MPLS is the generation of a short fixed-length label that acts as a shorthand
representation of an IP packet's header. This is much the same way as a ZIP code is shorthand
for the house, street and city in a postal address, and the use of that label to make forwarding
decisions about the packet. IP packets have a field in their 'header' that contains the address to
which the packet is to be routed. Traditional routed networks process this information at every
router in a packet's path through the network (hop by hop routing). [6]

In MPLS, the IP packets are encapsulated with these labels by the first MPLS device they
encounter as they enter the network. The MPLS edge router analyses the contents of the IP
header and selects an appropriate label with which to encapsulate the packet. Part of the great
power of MPLS comes from the fact that, in contrast to conventional IP routing, this analysis
can be based on more than just the destination address carried in the IP header. At all the
subsequent nodes within the network the MPLS label, and not the IP header, is used to make
the forwarding decision for the packet. Finally, as MPLS labeled packets leave the network,
another edge router removes the labels. [6]
In MPLS terminology, the packet handling nodes or routers are called Label Switched Routers
(LSRs). The derivation of the term should be obvious; MPLS routers forward packets by
making switching decisions based on the MPLS label. This illustrates another of the key
concepts in MPLS. Conventional IP routers contain routing tables which are looked up using
the IP header from a packet to decide how to forward that packet. These tables are built by IP
routing protocols (e.g., RIP or OSPF) which carry around IP reachability information in the
form of IP addresses. In practice, we find that forwarding (IP header lookup) and control planes
(generation of the routing tables) are tightly coupled. Since MPLS forwarding is based on labels
it is possible to cleanly separate the (label-based) forwarding plane from the routing protocol
control plane. By separating the two, each can be modified independently. With such a
separation, we don't need to change the forwarding machinery, for example, to migrate a new
routing strategy into the network. [8]
There are two broad categories of LSR. At the edge of the network, we require high
performance packet classifiers that can apply (and remove) the requisite labels: we call these
MPLS edge routers. Core LSRs need to be capable of processing the labeled packets at
extremely high bandwidths.
In the traditional OSI model: Layer 2 covers protocols like Ethernet and SONET, which can
carry IP packets, but only over simple LANs or point-to-point WANs. Layer 3 covers Internet-
wide addressing and routing using IP protocols. MPLS sits between these traditional layers,
providing additional features for the transport of data across the network.

Figure 1:MPLS packet transportation [5]
Virtual private networks (VPNs) have recently received a lot of attention from equipment
manufacturers, consultants, network designers, service providers, large enterprises, and end
users due to their cost advantages over traditional enterprise networks. As with most
technologies, the foundation for today's VPN networks and underlying technologies was
created more than 20 years ago. During its development, end users discovered that it made
financial sense to replace links between sites in their own private network with virtual
connections across a shared infrastructure. The assumption for doing this was that a shared
environment (or VPN) is equivalent in terms of security and privacy to the network (links) it
was replacing. [6]
This chapter reviews the basic Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) and MPLS-based VPN
concepts and terminologies to ensure an understanding of the terms used. It also covers the
latest developments in the MPLS VPN arena and how they enable the service provider to offer
new MPLS-based services, such as remote access into an MPLS-based VPN or Internet
Protocol (IP) multicast within a VPN.
1.2.2 MPLS VPN Terminology
Since the early days of X.25 and Frame Relay (the two technologies initially used to deploy
VPN services), many different technologies have been proposed as the basis to enable a VPN
infrastructure. These ranged from Layer 2 technologies (X.25, Frame Relay, and Asynchronous

Transfer Mode [ATM]) to Layer 3 technologies (primarily IP) or even Layer 7 technologies.
Not surprisingly, with such a variety of implementation proposals, the overall terminology in
the field has changed dramatically. MPLS VPN-based terminology is based on a clear
distinction between the service provider network (P-network) and the customer network (C-
network), as shown in Figure 1-1
Figure 2: MPLS VPN architecture [7]
The P-network is always topologically contiguous, whereas the C-network is usually clearly
delineated into a number of sites (contiguous parts of the customer network that are connected
in some way other than through the VPN service). Note that a site does not need to be
geographically contained; if the customer is using a VPN service for its international
connectivity only, a site could span a whole country. The devices that link the customer sites
to the P-network are called customer edge (CE) devices, whereas the service provider devices
to which the CE routers connect are called provider edge (PE) devices. In most cases, the P-
network is made up of more than just the PE routers. These other devices are called P devices
(or, if the P-network is implemented with Layer 3 technology, P routers). Similarly, the
additional Layer 3 devices in the customer sites that have no direct connectivity to the P-
network are called C routers. VPN technologies have evolved into two major approaches
toward implementing VPN services:
 Connection-oriented VPN — The PE devices provide virtual leased lines between the
CE devices. These virtual leased lines are called virtual circuits (VCs). The VCs can be
permanent, established out-of-band by the service provider network management team
(called permanent virtual circuits, or PVCs). They can also be temporary, established
on demand by the CE devices through a signaling protocol that the PE devices
understand. (These VCs are called switched virtual circuits,or SVCs).

Figure 3: Illustration of virtual circuits in MPLS network
 Connectionless VPN— The PE devices participate in the connectionless data transport
between CE devices. It is unnecessary for the service provider or the customer to
establish VCs in these VPNs, except perhaps between the PE and CE routers if the
service provider uses switched WAN as its access network technology.
Figure 4: Packet transmission through MPLS network

1.2.3 MPLS-Based VPNs [8]
MPLS-based VPN technology uses a combination of connection-oriented and
connectionless VPN technologies. The interface between the CE routers and the PE routers
is connectionless. No additional configuration is needed on the CE devices. The PE routers
use a modified IP forwarding paradigm; a distinct IP routing and forwarding table (called
virtual routing and forwarding table, or VRF) is created for each customer. The customer's
addresses are extended with 64-bit route distinguishers to make nonunique 32-bit IP
addresses globally unique within the service providers' backbone. The resulting 96-bit
addresses are called VPNv4addresses. A single routing protocol is run between the PE
routers for all VPN customers. Modified Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) with
multiprotocol extensions is used in this function. The PE routers use MPLS-based VCs
(called label-switched paths, or LSPs) to transport the customer's datagrams between PE
routers. Additional MPLS labels are inserted in front of the customer's IP datagrams to
ensure their proper forwarding from ingress PE routers toward the destination CE router.
The LSPs between all PE routers are established automatically based on the IP topology of
the P-network. It is unnecessary to configure or manually establish these paths. The
mapping between the customer's destination addresses and LSPs leading toward the egress
PE routers is performed automatically based on the BGP next-hops.
1.2.4 QoS Parameters
The QoS Parameters are:
• Delay: It is the time for a packet to be transported from the sender to the receiver.
• Jitter: It is the variation in end-to-end transit delay.
• Bandwidth: It is the maximal data transfer rate that can be sustained between two end points.
• Packet Loss is defined as the ratio of the number of undelivered packets to the total number
of sent packets.
• Reliability is the percentage of network availability depending upon the various
environmental parameters such as rain.

To achieve an end-to-end QoS in both satellite and/or hybrid satellite/terrestrial networks is a
non-trivial problem. However, end-to-end QoS objectives, including security, need
considerable research. A successful end-to-end QoS model depends upon the various interfaces
at each subsequent lower layer to the upper layers.
1.2.5 Video Distribution and Point-to-multipoint LSPs [1]
Historically, video distribution has been handled by terrestrial ATM or SONET/SDH networks.
Today’s content and video providers are typically opting for more modern options such as
IP/MPLS. However, until recently, IP/MPLS deployments have been limited to point-to-point
connections, which are not efficient for video broadcast distribution to multiple destinations.
Since a single uncompressed stream may be up to 260 Mbps, sending a separate copy of each
stream to each destination can quickly exhaust network bandwidth.
A point-to-multipoint LSP is an MPLS LSP with multiple destinations. By taking advantage
of the packet replication capability of the network, point-to-multipoint LSPs avoid unnecessary
replication at the ingress router. This solution was first developed in the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF) and is now deployed in many production networks. The figure 1illustrates
broadcast content being sent over a point-to-multipoint LSP to a number of broadband access
networks.
Figure 5: Broadcast content over point-to-multipoint LSP

By adding point-to-multipoint support, MPLS networks are able to efficiently deliver both
unicast and multicast content over a common network. IP/MPLS provides all of the features
offered in existing legacy networks without affecting the subscriber viewing experience. Since
IP/MPLS includes traffic engineering for performance and high availability, quality of service
(QoS), resource optimization, and security, it serves as an ideal converged backbone—one that
enables a wider variety of service offerings for service providers.
1.2.6 Baseline Requirements for Broadcast Content Distribution [2]
The broadcast industry presents many tough challenges. The demands of broadcast television
networks are far more stringent than those of corporate Webcasts or distance-learning
courseware. In addition to high definition television (HDTV), broadcast content distribution
has comparatively strict quality and resiliency needs. For instance, viewers of a corporate
presentation on a PC may tolerate a little jitter, but consumers of a live sporting event or a
suspenseful movie on the living room TV will find the slightest loss of a frame unacceptable.
The requirements of broadcast content distribution are interrelated, but they can be
characterized as follows:
i. Performance
Broadcast content distribution on a large scale means massive quantities of digital content at
high speed (up to 260 Mbps) for network TV broadcast. Because of the strict QoS and
resiliency requirements, this performance must be maintained under high load. MPLS provides
the ability to rapidly and easily grow the network as site count and content capacity increase.
Juniper Networks core routing platforms scale into the multi-terabit-per-second range with wire
speed, low-latency forwarding, and the ability to support a high density of 10-Gbps Ethernet.
[11]
ii. Quality of Service
Packet loss is an especially important consideration. For instance, a one-second loss will be
experienced as frame freezes, asynchronous dialogue, or slight omissions from the program,
and may be displayed for several seconds. The loss of even a handful of packets can result in a
noticeable—and unacceptable—blip on the TV screen. Jitter can also be an issue if network
delays extend beyond the ability of the set-top box to compensate. Advanced queuing
mechanisms, Resource Reservation Protocol with traffic engineering extensions (RSVP-TE)
help resolve these issues. Juniper Networks core routers can maintain jitter performance for

high-priority traffic under heavily oversubscribed conditions. The routed network also supports
the ability to recover from hot spots between specific locations. These hot spots may be the
result of shared facilities, expanded adoption of HDTV, or increased broadcast channels. MPLS
traffic engineering allows available bandwidth to be reserved over a selected path. It also plays
a role in resiliency, ensuring delivery through a separate backup path by coloring links or nodes
and specifying the colors that an LSP connection should follow (or avoid). This ensures that
connections that are part of a protected circuit will never travel through a common point.
iii. Resiliency
The network must support rapid recovery from a failure, since video is extremely loss-sensitive.
Even with forward-error correction capabilities in the video layer, the reduction of outage times
to sub-second intervals is critical to sustain high levels of video quality and minimize error
recovery dependencies. Traditional, last-generation routers were typically unable to deliver the
resiliency requirements for broadcast content distribution. There exists MPLS Fast Reroute
(FRR) to meet the resiliency requirements for broadband content distribution. MPLS can also
recover from an outage using local repair techniques. Additionally, MPLS can reallocate lower
traffic class bandwidth in a converged core so that an entire duplication of capacity is not held
in reserve. This reduces the number of idle links in the network while maximizing revenue
potential. The use of a bypass LSP for link protection can also be configured into point-to-
multipoint LSPs. The bypass LSP uses a different interface and path to reach the same
destination. Similarly, Graceful Restart (GR) can be configured on point-to-multipoint LSPs.
This allows a router undergoing a restart to inform its neighbors of its condition, and thus
receive a grace period on control plane communications. The restarting router can also still
forward MPLS traffic during the restart period.
1.2.7 Efficient Transport of Broadcast Video
For bandwidth efficiency, it is necessary to perform an efficient replication within the network
to eliminate duplicated traffic over the same link. It is this capability that has historically been
missing from MPLS. Standard point-to-point LSPs do not provide efficient distribution. For
example, in the point-to-point LSP illustrated in Figure 2, content is sent four times from PE1,
even though it is only destined for two routers on the next hop.
Because the receivers are typically static hubs, the only facet of a multicast routing protocol
required for this particular application is replication, which is provided by the point-to-
multipoint LSP. High Availability, resiliency, convergence, and traffic engineering are all best

handled by MPLS. The use of PIM and point-to-multipoint LSP is not always an “either/or”
situation. For example, you can use point-to-multipoint LSPs to distribute multicast traffic to
PIM islands situated downstream from egress routers. This is enabled by the ability to control
whether a reverse path forwarding (RPF) check is performed for a source and group entry
before the route is installed in the multicast forwarding cache. [3]
1.2.8 Replication in Point-to-multipoint LSPs
A traditional point-to-point LSP has one ingress point and one egress point, but a point-to-
multipoint LSP has a single ingress node with multiple egress nodes. This replication process
is illustrated in Figure 3. Router PE1 is configured with a point-to-multipoint LSP to routers
PE2, PE3, PE4, and PE5. When router PE1 sends a packet on the point-to-multipoint LSP to
routers P1 and P2, router P1 replicates the packet and forwards it to routers PE2 and PE4.
Router P2 sends the packet to router PE3 and PE5. [4]
Figure 6: Replication of Point-to-multipoint LSP

Figure 7: Point-to-multipoint packet transportation
1.3 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of the project is to design and implement the transportation of Digital Terrestrial
Television signals in an MPLS multicast network to provide a good quality of service. This
will therefore provide an effective and efficient transmission of broadcast signals wirelessly. It
will make the home installation process a lot faster and cheaper as a satellite dish is not required
and there exist an in-built decoder
1.4 PROJECT PLAN
Since this project entails wireless transmission, routers will be used. This brings about the use
of a software for the configurations of each of the routers. I therefore chose the GNS3 software.
In this document, we will investigate the MPLS based method with specificity in point-to-
multipoint, this technique shall be put in place with respect to the existing MPLS backbone in
the country.

1.5. SUMMARY
With the knowledge gotten from the MPLS architecture in chapter two, a good background
has been setup to make the implementation process to be smoother.
This chapter has given an insight of what the project is all about; the problem I am trying
to solve has been clearly stated, a review of how the existing system works and how it can
be adapted to help operators distribute and satisfy their customer’s desire for particular
subscriptions. The dire need for a tool to solve this problem has been emphasized.
The following chapter explains in detail the methodology and design that can be used to
achieve this objective.

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY AND DESIGN
2.1 INTRODUCTION
As discussed in the previous chapter, a software is needed to realise this project for the
configuration of the routers used for the transmission of the television signals. This will
require knowledge in networking and a good knowledge of MPLS.
2.2 DESIGN
2.2.1 Designing the IP and MPLS Transport Layer
Designing the IP and MPLS transport layer is the most complex part of the design process.
However, if you follow our seamless MPLS architecture, you will be better prepared to make
the correct decisions about mapping the network topology to the architectural segments. (See
the topic “Seamless MPLS.”) At the IP and MPLS transport level, you determine which nodes
perform the role of the area border router (ABR) or the autonomous system boundary router
(ASBR). After you designate the border routers, the roles of other nodes fall logically into
place. Many protection mechanisms are deployed at the IP and MPLS transport level and are
included into the overall solution for network resiliency. [11]
2.2.2 Project Topology
Figure 8: GNS3 project topology

2.3 METHODOLOGY
2.3.1 GNS3
GNS3 is a free graphical network simulator capable of emulating a number of network
devices. This makes it possible for anyone to quickly and easily spin up network
hardware for testing and educational purposes without the heavy expense of physical
hardware. Supported devices include Cisco routers and firewalls, Juniper routers, and
frame-relay switches. Whatever is configured on the router in this software will be the
same when implementing on the hardware making this highly accurate and reliable. [5]
Figure 9: GSN3 Software
In other to implement the MPLS VPN concept certain configurations need to be done to
realise this.
2.3.3 Implementing Routing Regions
A closed interior gateway protocol (IGP) region is a network region where all routers use the
same IGP to exchange and store routing information within the region, and routing
information is not sent across the region border router to the adjacent region by means of the
IGP. The primary advantage of regions is to reduce the number of entries in the routing and

forwarding tables of individual routers. This configuration simplifies the network, enabling
greater scale and faster convergence. This reduction in the amount of resources required by
each node prolongs the lifespan of each node as the network continues to grow.
Regions also simplify network integration and troubleshooting. With multi-regions, network
integration and expansion do not require compatible IGPs. In addition, troubleshooting a
multi-region network is simplified because problems are more likely to be contained within a
single region rather than spread across multiple regions.
2.3.4 Protocols Used
In other to implement MPLS certain protocols have to be used as well, as MPLS exists
only in the backbone of the network.
i) OSPF(Open Shortest Path First)
The OSPF routing protocol has largely replaced the older Routing Information Protocol (RIP)
in corporate networks. Using OSPF, a router that learns of a change to a routing table (when
it is reconfigured by network staff, for example) or detects a change in the network
immediately multicasts the information to all other OSPF hosts in the network so they will all
have the same routing table information. Unlike RIP, which requires routers to send the entire
routing table to neighbors every 30 seconds, OSPF sends only the part that has changed and
only when a change has taken place. When routes change, sometimes due to equipment
failure - the time it takes OSPF routers to find a new path between endpoints with no loops
(which is called "open") and that minimizes the length of the path is called the convergence
time. Rather than simply counting the number of router hops between hosts on a network, as
RIP does, OSPF bases its path choices on "link states" that take into account additional. To
OSPF, the Layer 3 MPLS VPN backbone looks like a standard corporate backbone that runs
standard IP routing software. Routing updates are exchanged between the customer routers
and the PE routers that appear as normal routers in the customer network. The service

provider routers are hidden from the customer view, and CE routers are unaware of MPLS
VPN. Therefore, the internal topology of the Layer 3 MPLS backbone is totally transparent to
the customer. The PE routers receive IPv4 routing updates from the CE routers and install
them in the appropriate virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) table. link. Although it is
intended to replace RIP, OSPF has RIP support built in both for router-to-host
communication and for compatibility with older networks using RIP as their primary
protocol. This is applied on the routers as shown below. [6]
Figure 10: OSPF Illustration
ii) BGP (Border Gateway Protocol):
The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is the routing protocol of the Internet, used to route
traffic across the Internet. For that reason, it's a pretty important protocol, and it can also be
the hardest one to understand. From our overview of Internet routing, you should realize that
routing in the Internet is comprised of two parts: the internal fine-grained portions managed
by an IGP such as OSPF, and the interconnections of those autonomous systems (AS) via
BGP.
BGP is the path-vector protocol that provides routing information for autonomous systems on
the Internet via its AS-Path attribute. BGP is a Layer 4 protocol that sits on top of TCP. It is
much simpler than OSPF, because it doesn’t have to worry about the things TCP will handle.
Peers that have been manually configured to exchange routing information will form a TCP
connection and begin speaking BGP. There is no discovery in BGP. Medium-sized
businesses usually get into BGP for the purpose of true multi-homing for their entire network.

Routers will not import any routes that contain themselves in the AS-Path.
When BGP is configured incorrectly, it can cause massive availability and security problems.
In the world of BGP, each routing domain is known as an autonomous system, or AS. What
BGP does is help choose a path through the Internet, usually by selecting a route that
traverses the least number of autonomous systems: the shortest AS path.
Once BGP is enabled, your router will pull a list of Internet routes from your BGP neighbors,
who in this case will be your two ISPS. It will then scrutinize them to find the routes with the
shortest AS paths. Generally, but not always, routers will choose the shortest path to an AS.
BGP only knows about these paths based on updates it receives.
Unlike Routing Information Protocol (RIP), a distance-vector routing protocol which
employs the hop count as a routing metric, BGP does not broadcast its entire routing table. At
boot, your peer will hand over its entire table. After that, everything relies on updates
received.
Route updates are stored in a Routing Information Base (RIB). A routing table will only store
one route per destination, but the RIB usually contains multiple paths to a destination. It is up
to the router to decide which routes will make it into the routing table, and therefore which
paths will actually be used. In the event that a route is withdrawn, another route to the same
place can be taken from the RIB.
The RIB is only used to keep track of routes that could possibly be used. If a route
withdrawal is received and it only existed in the RIB, it is silently deleted from the RIB. No
update is sent to peers. RIB entries never time out. They continue to exist until it is assumed
that the route is no longer valid.
In many cases, there will be multiple routes to the same destination. BGP therefore uses path
attributes to decide how to route traffic to specific networks. The easiest of these to
understand is Shortest AS_Path. What this means is the path which traverses the least number
of AS "wins."
iii) Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) [13]
EIGRP is an interior gateway protocol suited for many different topologies and media. In
a well designed network, EIGRP scales well and provides extremely quick convergence
times with minimal network traffic.To distribute routing information throughout a
network, EIGRP uses non-periodic incremental routing updates. That is, EIGRP only
sends routing updates about paths that have changed when those paths change.

The basic problem with sending only routing updates is that you may not know when a path
through a neighboring router is no longer available. You cannot time out routes, expecting to
receive a new routing table from your neighbors. EIGRP relies on neighbor relationships to
reliably propagate routing table changes throughout the network; two routers become
neighbors when they see each other's hello packets on a common network. EIGRP uses the
minimum bandwidth on the path to a destination network and the total delay to compute
routing metrics. Although you can configure other metrics, we do not recommend it, as it can
cause routing loops in your network. The bandwidth and delay metrics are determined from
values configured on the interfaces of routers in the path to the destination network. This
protocol is carried out on the customer sides.
Figure 11: EIGRP Illustration

CHAPTER 3: IMPLEMENTATION, TESTS, RESULTS AND
DISCUSSION OF THE MPLS NETWORK
3.1 INTRODUCTION
Implementing MPLS involves a good number of steps to follow. This chapter will comprise
of all those steps which will provide the desired reults.
3.2 REQUIREMENTS FOR PROJECT REALISATION
i) Configure all IP addresses as specified in the topology picture. Internet
Protocol Address (or IP Address) is a unique address that computing devices
such as personal computers, tablets, and smartphones used to identify itself
and communicate with other devices in the IP network. Any device connected
to the IP network must have a unique IP address within the network.
ii) Configure a loopback0 interface on each router. The loopback interface is a
virtual interface that is always up and available after it has been configured. A
loopback interface is often used as a termination address for some routing
protocols, because it never goes down. It is also used to identify a router. For
example, say you want to find out whether a particular router is up. This
method ensures that you will get a response no matter how your packets reach
the router. This will be assigned as follows; R1: 1.0.0.1 /8, R2: 2.0.0.2 /8, R3:
3.0.0.3 /8 till the ninth router.
iii) Configure OSPF Area 0 at the provider side (R2, R3, R4, R5, and R6). The
Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) Protocol, is one of the most commonly used
interior gateway protocols in IP networking. OSPFv2 is an open-standard
protocol that provides routing for IPv4. OSPF is an interior gateway routing
protocol that uses link-states rather than distance vectors for path selection.
OSPF propagates link-state advertisements (LSAs) rather than routing table
updates. Because only LSAs are exchanged instead of the entire routing tables,
OSPF networks converge in a timely manner. OSPF uses a link-state
algorithm to build and calculate the shortest path to all known destinations.
Each router in an OSPF area contains an identical link-state database, which is
a list of each of the router-usable interfaces and reachable neighbors, The

customer routers are not aware of MPLS VPN; they run standard IP routing
software.This part of the configuration, and operation, is the responsibility of a
service provider.
Figure 12: OSPF configuration
iv) The loopback interfaces are advertised as well in the OSPF network and full
reachability is ensured in the OSPF domain. The loopback 0 interface will be
used to establish a BGP neighbor adjacency which will be seen later on. This
configuration is seen in figure 12 above.
v) Configure MPLS on all physical interfaces in the service provider domain, MPLS is
not configured on physical interfaces pointing towards the customer. This is because
MPLS is configured just in the backbone and the customers do not have to be aware of
the protocol. MPLS is forced to use the loopback interface as router-id. A loopback is
recommended because it is the most stable of interfaces. Since the RID will be taken

from the loopback, and it cannot go down unless the router has a serious problem, you
can be assured that the protocol using it should act properly. It gives a more stable way
to keep the RID.
vi) Configure VRF “customer” on R2, R5 and R6 as following: RD 100:1, Route-target
both 1:100 and the interfaces pointing towards the customer to the VRF I just created
are added. This is to enable communication between the two ends that is, the source
and the receivers since the customers aren’t directly attached to the network. The
network is tested to ensure one can ping from within the VRF.
Figure 13: VRF configuration and testing
vii) Configure EIGRP AS 100 on router R1, R7, R8 and R9. Enhanced Interior Gateway
Routing Protocol (EIGRP) is an advanced distance-vector routing protocol that is used
on a computer network for automating routing decisions and configuration. EIGRP is
used on a router to share routes with other routers within the same autonomous system.
Unlike other well-known routing protocols, EIGRP only sends incremental updates,
reducing the workload on the router and the amount of data that needs to be

transmitted. EIGRP is a dynamic routing protocol by which routers automatically share
route information. This eases the workload on a network administrator who does not
have to configure changes to the routing table manually. The loopbacks are advertised
as well. EIGRP auto-summary is disabled. EIGRP is configured on router R2, R5 and
R6 for the correct VRF “customer”. Ensure you have established a EIGRP neighbor
relationship between Router R1and R2, and between R5 and R7,R8 and finally
between R6 and R9. [14]
Figure 14: EIGRP configuration
viii) Configure BGP AS 1 between Router R2, R6 and R5, updates are sources from the
loopback interface. With MPLS, the provider now participates in the Routing process
& is running BGP on their router. Hence we also have to use BGP on our router for the
MPLS to work.The mapping between the customer's destination addresses and LSPs
leading toward the egress PE routers is performed automatically based on the BGP
next-hops. The correct BGP address families are configured and communities are sent
between neighbors. EIGRP is redistributed into BGP using the correct address-family

for the VRF “customer”. Redistribute the information from BGP back into EIGRP, this
is to ensure total connectivity in the network.
3.3 RESULTS
The final results were therefore obtained:
i) The figure below shows the routes of R2 indicating its OSPF, EIRP and directly
connected neighbors. A ping is done to one of the loopback interfaces which
shows a 100% connectivity.
Figure 15: R2 IP route table and network establishment

ii) This figure shows the vrf “CUSTOMER” being created and there exist
connectivity between all routers in that VRF.
Figure 16: VRF creation and testing

This shows the ip route of the vrf CUSTOMER. That is all routes required to reach the
various customer sites.
iii) This figure finally illustrates the connectivity between the source and receivers.
All packets sent by the source were successfully received by the individual

GENERAL CONCLUSION
The GNS3 was used to design and implement the transportation of Digital Terrestrial
Television signals in an MPLS multicast network to provide a good quality of service.
This made sure there exists an effective and efficient transmission of broadcast signals
wirelessly thereby meeting the objective of this project. This will still need some tuning
to make it perfect. This project has helped me have an insight of networking. Due to time
constraint all parameters related to bring about a 100% QoS model were not dealt with
therefore so much still has to done.

REFERENCES
[1] Juniper networks, Best Practices for Video Transit on an MPLS Backbone, 2007.
[2] Juniper network, Enhancing and Simplifying Video Distribution Using MPLS, 2007.
[3] M. D. J. E. G. T. S. Torsten Braun, End-to-End Quality of Service Over Heterogeneous Network,
2008.
[4] Juniper network, Converged Packet Transport, 2015.
[5] GNS3, https://itpro.tv/course-library/gns3/gns3/.
[6] Cisco, MPLS: Layer 3 VPNs Configuration Guide, Cisco IOS Release 15M&T, 2011.
[7] I. P. J. A. Jim Guichard, MPLS and VPN Architectures, Volume II, 2003.
[8] Cisco, Implementing Cisco MPLS, 2002.
[9] Australian Broadcasting Authority, Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting Planning
Handbook, 2005.
[10] Net Insight, Next Generation Digital Terrestrial Tv Networks, 2007.
[11] S. L.Kots, Satellite Multimedia Networks and Technical Challenges, 2006.
[12] Juniper network, Universal Access and Aggregation Backahaul Design Guide, 2013.
[13] T. S. S. Yves Hertoghs, IP Networks for Broadcaster Applications.
[14] Cisco , MPLS/VPN with EIGRP on the Customer Side, 2007.
[15] Cisco, Fundamentals of Digital Video, 2007.
[16] [En ligne]. Available:
http://www.wirelesscommunication.nl/reference/chaptr01/brdcsyst/dttb/dttb.htm. [Accès le
23 august 2016].

APPENDIX
Configuration Example Of CE
hostname R8
!
boot-start-marker
boot-end-marker
!
no aaa new-model
memory-size iomem 5
no ip icmp rate-limit unreachable
!
ip cef
no ip domain lookup
ip tcp synwait-time 5
!
interface Loopback0
ip address 8.0.0.8 255.0.0.0
!
interface FastEthernet0/0
ip address 17.0.0.6 255.0.0.0
duplex auto
speed auto
!
no ip address
shutdown
duplex auto
speed auto
!

no ip address
shutdown
duplex auto
speed auto
!
no ip address
shutdown
duplex auto
speed auto
!
router eigrp 100
network 8.0.0.0
network 17.0.0.0
no auto-summary
!
no ip http server
no ip http secure-server
!
no cdp log mismatch duplex
!
control-plane
!
line con 0
exec-timeout 0 0
privilege level 15
logging synchronous
line aux 0
exec-timeout 0 0
privilege level 15

logging synchronous
line vty 0 4
login
!
end
Configuration Example Of PE Router
hostname PE1
!
boot-start-marker
boot-end-marker
!
no aaa new-model
memory-size iomem 5
!
ip cef
no ip domain lookup
!
ip vrf CUSTOMER
rd 100:1
route-target export 1:100
route-target import 1:100
!
!
interface Loopback0
ip address 2.0.0.2 255.0.0.0
ip ospf network point-to-point
!

ip address 11.0.0.3 255.0.0.0
duplex auto
speed auto
mpls ip
!
ip vrf forwarding CUSTOMER
ip address 10.0.0.3 255.0.0.0
duplex auto
speed auto
!
ip address 12.0.0.3 255.0.0.0
duplex auto
speed auto
mpls ip
!
no ip address
shutdown
duplex auto
speed auto
!
router eigrp 1
auto-summary
!
address-family ipv4 vrf CUSTOMER
redistribute bgp 1 metric 1500 4000 200 10 1500
network 10.0.0.0

no auto-summary
autonomous-system 100
exit-address-family
!
router ospf 1
log-adjacency-changes
network 2.0.0.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
network 10.0.0.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
network 11.0.0.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
network 12.0.0.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
!
router bgp 1
no synchronization
bgp log-neighbor-changes
neighbor 5.0.0.5 remote-as 1
neighbor 5.0.0.5 update-source Loopback0
neighbor 6.0.0.6 remote-as 1
neighbor 6.0.0.6 update-source Loopback0
no auto-summary
!
address-family vpnv4
neighbor 5.0.0.5 activate
neighbor 5.0.0.5 send-community both
neighbor 6.0.0.6 activate
neighbor 6.0.0.6 send-community both
exit-address-family
!
address-family ipv4 vrf CUSTOMER
redistribute eigrp 100
no synchronization

exit-address-family
!
no ip http server
!
mpls ldp router-id Loopback0
!
control-plane
!
line con 0
exec-timeout 0 0
privilege level 15
logging synchronous
line aux 0
exec-timeout 0 0
privilege level 15
logging synchronous
line vty 0 4
login
Configuration Of P Routers
hostname P2
!
boot-start-marker
boot-end-marker
!
no aaa new-model
memory-size iomem 5

!
ip cef
no ip domain lookup
!
!
interface Loopback0
ip address 4.0.0.4 255.0.0.0
ip ospf network point-to-point
!
ip address 12.0.0.4 255.0.0.0
duplex auto
speed auto
mpls ip
!
ip address 13.0.0.5 255.0.0.0
duplex auto
speed auto
mpls ip
!
ip address 15.0.0.4 255.0.0.0
duplex auto
speed auto
mpls ip
!
no ip address

shutdown
duplex auto
speed auto
!
router ospf 1
log-adjacency-changes
network 4.0.0.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
network 12.0.0.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
network 13.0.0.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
network 15.0.0.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
!
no ip http server
!
mpls ldp router-id Loopback0
!
control-plane
!
line con 0
exec-timeout 0 0
privilege level 15
logging synchronous
line aux 0
exec-timeout 0 0
privilege level 15
logging synchronous
line vty 0 4
login
end

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