MPLS and RSVP
7450 ESS MPLS Guide Page 55
Configuring Implicit Null
The implicit null label option allows a 7x50 egress LER to receive MPLS packets from the 
previous hop without the outer LSP label. The operation of the previous hop is referred to as 
penultimate hop popping (PHP). 
This option is signaled by the egress LER to the previous hop during the LSP signaling with 
RSVP control protocol. In addition, the egress LER can be configured to receive MPLS packet 
with the implicit null label on a static LSP.
The user can configure your router to signal the implicit null label value over all RSVP interfaces 
and for all RSVP LSPs for which this node is the egress LER using the implicit-null-label 
command in the config>router>rsvp context.
The user must shutdown RSVP before being able to change the implicit null configuration option.
The user can also override the RSVP level configuration for a specific RSVP interface:
config>router>rsvp>interface>implicit-null-label {enable | disable}
All LSPs for which this node is the egress LER and for which the path message is received from 
the previous hop node over this RSVP interface will signal the implicit null label. This means that 
if the egress LER is also the merge-point (MP) node, then the incoming interface for the path 
refresh message over the bypass dictates if the packet will use the implicit null label or not. The 
same for a 1-to-1 detour LSP.
By default, an RSVP interface inherits the RSVP level configuration. The user must shutdown the 
RSVP interface before being able to change the implicit null configuration option. Note that the 
RSVP interface must be shutdown regardless if the new value for the interface is the same or 
different than the one it is currently using.
The egress LER does not signal the implicit null label value on P2MP RSVP LSPs. However, the 
PHP node can honor a Resv message with the label value set to the implicit null value when the 
egress LER is a third party implementation.
The implicit null label option is also supported on a static label LSP. The following commands can 
be used to cause the node to push or to swap to an implicit null label on the MPLS packet:
config>router>mpls>static-lsp>push implicit-null-label nexthop ip-address
config>router>mpls>interface>label-map>swap implicit-null-label nexthop ip-address