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A P router is a provider router that is part of the service provider’s core network in an MPLS environment. A P router does not have any customer routes or VPN information, but only has information about how to reach other P routers and PE routers in the same MPLS domain. A P router performs label switching, which means that it forwards labeled packets based on their top label in the label stack. A P router can perform two possible label actions:

Swap: The P router replaces the incoming label with a new label that corresponds to the next hop along the label-switched path (LSP). The new label is determined by looking up the label forwarding information base (LFIB) based on the incoming label and interface.

PHP: The P router removes the top label from the packet at the penultimate hop before reaching the egress PE router. This is done to avoid an extra lookup on the egress PE router, which can forward the packet based on its IP header or another label in the stack.

A P router does not perform push or drop actions on labels. A push action means adding one or more labels to the packet, which is done by an ingress PE router when initiating an LSP. A drop action means discarding a packet, which is done by any router when there is no matching entry in its LFIB or routing table. References: Provider (P) Router in IP MPLS Network - Cisco Community, MPLS Fundamentals: Forwarding Labeled Packets - Cisco Press, MPLS Label Switching | MPLS Operation | Push, Swap,Push ⋆ IPCisco

Two statements that are true regarding the LSP are:

The LSP refers to a sequence of routers that forward the MPLS packet based on labels. An LSP is a Label Switched Path, which is a path through an MPLS network that is established by signaling protocols such as LDP or RSVP-TE. An LSP consists of a sequence of routers (called Label Switching Routers or LSRs) that forward packets based on labels rather than IP addresses. Labels are short fixed-length identifiers that are attached to packets at the ingress router and removed at the egress router. Labels can be swapped or popped at intermediate routers according to their label forwarding tables78.

The LSP refers to a sequence of routers that add, remove, or change label values along the path. As mentioned above, an LSP consists of a sequence of routers that forward packets based on labels. Along the path, different routers may perform different operations on the labels depending on their role and configuration. The ingress router adds one or more labels to the packet before sending it into the MPLS network. The egress router removes all labels from the packet before sending it out of the MPLS network. The intermediate routers may swap one label with another label according to their label forwarding tables. This process is called label switching78.

References: MPLS Fundamentals: 3 - MPLS Packet Forwarding, Multiprotocol Label Switching - Wikipedia

The device that will fragment IPv6 packets is the source host. Fragmentation is a process of dividing a large packet into smaller pieces that can fit the maximum transmission unit (MTU) of the network link. In IPv4, fragmentation can be performed by either the source host or any intermediate router along the path. However, in IPv6, fragmentation is only allowed at the source host, and routers are not allowed to fragment packets. This reduces the processing overhead and complexity at routers and avoids potential fragmentation attacks. If a router receives an IPv6 packet that is too large for the next-hop link, it will drop the packet and send an ICMPv6 Packet Too Big message back to the source host56.

References: IPv6 address - Wikipedia, IPv6 Fragmentation - Cisco

The function of LSR from an LDP perspective is to distribute labels of FEC to its LDP peers. LSR stands for Label Switching Router, which is a router that forwards packets based on labels rather than IP addresses in an MPLS network. LDP stands for Label Distribution Protocol, which is a protocol that distributes labels for MPLS forwarding along the shortest path calculated by an IGP. FEC stands for Forwarding Equivalence Class, which is a group of packets that are forwarded in the same manner by an LSR. An LSR uses LDP to advertise the label mappings for each FEC to its LDP peers, which are other LSRs that have established an LDP session with it12.

References: Ldp | Microsoft Learn, Label Distribution Protocol - Wikipedia

An LDP implicit null label causes penultimate hop popping by a downstream router. LDP is a protocol that distributes labels for MPLS forwarding along the shortest path calculated by an IGP. An implicit null label is a special label value of 3 that indicates that the downstream router does not need a label to forward the packet to its destination. When an upstream router receives an implicit null label from a downstream router, it removes (or pops) the label from the packet before sending it to the downstream router. This process is called penultimate hop popping (PHP) and it reduces the load on the downstream router, which can forward the packet based on its IP header or another label in the stack59.

References: MPLS Label Distribution Protocol Commands - Cisco, Solved: Implicit null and Explicit null - Cisco Community

A BGP session is established between two routers by sending a unicast OPEN message. BGP uses TCP as its transport protocol, which means that before exchanging any BGP information, a TCP connection must be established between the routers. The TCP connection uses port 179 as both source and destination port. After establishing a TCP connection, each router sends an OPEN message to its neighbor, containing parameters such as BGP version number, AS number, hold time, BGP identifier, and optional capabilities. The OPEN message also serves as a keepalive message for BGP. If both routers agree on these parameters, they proceed to exchange UPDATE messages containing routing information and establish a BGP session.

A BGP router does not send a NOTIFICATION message to establish a session, but rather to terminate a session due to an error or a manual shutdown. A BGP router does not send a CONNECT message, as this is a TCP state, not a BGP message. A BGP router does not send a multicast HELLO packet, as this is an OSPF message, not a BGP message. References: BGP Neighbor States > BGP Fundamentals | Cisco Press, Demystifying BGP Session Establishments - Packet Pushers, The TCP/IP Guide - BGP Connection Establishment: Open Messages

Route summarization is a technique that reduces the number of routes that a router advertises to its neighbors by creating a single summary route that covers multiple subnets or networks. Route summarization has several benefits, such as:

It reduces the size of a routing table, which saves memory and CPU resources on the router. A smaller routing table also improves the lookup efficiency and convergence time of the routing protocol.

It reduces signaling, which means that less bandwidth is consumed by routing updates and less processing is required by neighboring routers. This also enhances the stability and scalability of the network, as fewer routing changes are propagated.

It improves route aggregation, which means that more specific routes are replaced by a less specific route that can be advertised to other autonomous systems or routing domains. This simplifies the inter-domain routing and hides the internal topology details.

Route summarization does not necessarily summarize the routing table entries into a default route, although a default route can be considered a special case of route summarization where all destinations are covered by one route. Route summarization also does not improve the best route calculation, as it may introduce suboptimal routing or black holes if not done properly. References: Introduction to Route Summarization - NetworkLessons.com, Route Summarization > Example for Understanding Route Summarization - Cisco Press

In the exhibit, router R4 is performing a swap action. This means that router R4 is replacing the incoming label with a new label and forwarding the packet to the next hop along the LSP. In this case, router R4 receives a packet with label 20 from router R3 and swaps it with label 30 before sending it to router R5.

The exhibit shows an example of an MPLS network with four routers: R1, R2, R3, and R4. Router R1 is the ingress PE router and router R4 is the egress PE router. Router R2 and R3 are P routers. Router R1 assigns label 10 to the packet and sends it to router R2. Router R2 swaps label 10 with label 20 and sends it to router R3. Router R3 swaps label 20 with label 30 and sends it to router R4. Router R4 removes label 30 from the packet and forwards it based on its IP header or another label in the stack.

Therefore, the answer is D.

References: MPLS Label Switching | MPLS Operation | Push, Swap,Push ⋆ IPCisco, A Complete Guide to Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) - G2, Multiprotocol Label Switching - Wikipedia

The next-hop to reach the host 192.168.1.129 is 10.126.131.250. This can be determined by looking at the routing table in the exhibit. The host 192.168.1.129 falls within the range of the network 192.168.1.64/26, which has a next-hop of 10.126.131.250. References: Ericsson IP Networking - IP Addressing, Software Installation and Upgrade Overview (Junos OS)

Referring to the exhibit, the correct statement is that the service provider’s P routers are not aware of the customers’ routes. This is because P routers only need to forward MPLS packets based on their labels, without looking into their IP headers or VPN information. The P routers do not have any VRFs configured for the customers, nor do they participate in MP-BGP sessions with other PE routers. The PE routers are responsible for maintaining VRFs for each customer and for exchanging VPN routes with other PE routers using MP-BGP910.

References: Layer 3 VPNs (L3VPN) - Cisco, MPLS VPN - Wikipedia