User guide

MPLS Module Installation and User Guide 5-1

Configuring RSVP-TE

This chapter describes the Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP), traffic engineering

(TE) extensions to RSVP, and how you configure RSVP-TE using ExtremeWare.

This chapter covers the following topics:

• RSVP Elements on page 5-2

• Traffic Engineering on page 5-8

• RSVP Features on page 5-10

• Configuring RSVP-TE on page 5-14

• Configuration Example on page 5-26

RSVP is a protocol that defines procedures for signaling QoS requirements and

reserving the necessary resources for a router to provide a requested service to all nodes

along a data path.

RSVP is not a routing protocol. It works in conjunction with unicast and multicast

routing protocols. An RSVP process consults a local routing database to obtain routing

information. Routing protocols determine where packets get forwarded; RSVP is

concerned with the QoS of those packets that are forwarded in accordance with the

routing protocol.

Reservation requests for a flow follow the same path through the network as the data

comprising the flow. RSVP reservations are unidirectional in nature, and the source

initiates the reservation procedure by transmitting a path message containing a traffic

specification (Tspec) object. The Tspec describes the source traffic characteristics in