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MPLS from Scratch in English | 17 Hours with EVE-NG Labs | BridgeWhy

  • Master the art of OSPF, BGP, and MPLS: Building from the basics to designing robust networks for seamless connectivity!

Created by Vishnu Dutt

  • English

About the course

This page lists every lesson inside the English version of MPLS from Scratch. 

The curriculum is 17 hours long and is split across 13 lessons. It begins with the reason MPLS was invented and finishes with the LIB, FIB, and CEF data plane that powers every MPLS router. Every concept is taught why first, and every lab runs on EVE-NG.


If you want both Hindi and English access at one price

the MPLS from Scratch Package is the recommended purchase. The Package gives you both versions in one account so you can switch languages whenever a concept feels heavy.


The English version is built for engineers who want the entire MPLS story in plain English with the full vocabulary used in RFCs and Cisco design guides. Every term in the course matches the term you will see in formal study material, which makes the path from this course to CCNP or CCIE preparation almost seamless.

The opening two lessons build the why.

 Most MPLS courses on the internet skip this step and start with commands. We do not. You sit with the problem first. What was broken in pure IP routing that forced an entire industry to adopt a new forwarding paradigm? Once that pain is real to you, the rest of the course flows naturally because every label, every VRF, and every protocol fills a gap you already feel.


Lessons 3 through 5 build the VRF block. 

VRF is the structure that allows a single physical router to behave as many independent logical routers, one for each customer. You learn what VRF is, why Route Distinguisher and Route Target both exist, and how routes can leak from one VRF to another in a controlled way for shared services or internet access.


Lessons 6 through 8 build the MP-BGP block.

MPLS L3VPN does not use plain BGP because plain BGP carries only IPv4 routes. You learn why iBGP fits the provider core, why BGP needed a multiprotocol extension, what VPNv4 routes look like, and how MP-BGP carries customer routes across the provider. Lesson 8 is the full lab where the theory becomes a working session.


Lessons 9 through 11 build the label distribution block.

Labels are useless if every router in the path does not agree on them. LDP is the protocol that creates that agreement. You learn the why of LDP, the mechanics of label binding and advertisement, and then in Lesson 11 you walk a packet from end to end and watch which label is pushed, which is swapped, and which is popped at each hop.


Lessons 12 and 13 close the picture.

Lesson 12 is the full MPLS L3VPN lab that uses everything from the previous twelve lessons together. Lesson 13 opens the data plane that no other course explains properly: the LIB, the FIB, and CEF, and why these structures make MPLS forwarding faster than traditional route lookup.


By the end of this English version you will be able to do the following without help.

 Draw a service provider MPLS network and label every router as P, PE, or CE. Explain why VRF is needed and how RD and RT work together. Describe iBGP's role in MPLS L3VPN. Explain MP-BGP and the VPNv4 address family. Walk a packet from one customer site to another and name every label action at every hop. Open the LIB and FIB of any router and read what each entry means.


If English is the language you read documentation in

the language used in your office, or simply the language you prefer to study in, this version is built for you. If Hindi feels more natural, see the Hindi version instead, or get the Package with both versions for full flexibility.


Why learners trust BridgeWhy

More than 15000 network engineers have learned with us across more than 100 countries. The teaching philosophy is one sentence: if you understand the mind of the person who built the concept, the concept becomes easy. Every course on BridgeWhy is built on this why first approach. Read more on the About Us page or browse all our courses in the course store.


What you will learn



This is the English curriculum, lesson by lesson, with the technical depth you will see inside each one.

Lesson 1: Why behind MPLS Part 1
The course opens with the question every honest engineer asks: why was MPLS invented when OSPF and BGP were already working? You learn the specific limitations of pure IP forwarding in large networks. You see how route lookup at every hop slowed routers down in the early days of the internet. You see how service providers needed a way to carry multiple customers across one backbone without mixing their routes. By the end of this lesson the problem MPLS solves feels concrete, not abstract.

Lesson 2: Why behind MPLS Part 2
The why deepens. You learn how the early designers reasoned their way to labels, label stacks, and the separation of the control plane from the data plane. The two key MPLS ideas appear: a label is a short fixed length identifier that can be looked up faster than an IP prefix, and the same label can mean different things to different routers, which allows the same backbone to carry many independent customers.

Lesson 3: Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRFs)
A service provider router must keep one customer's routes completely isolated from another's, but both customers are connected to the same physical router. VRF is the structure that makes this possible. You learn what a VRF actually is inside a router, how interfaces are placed inside a VRF, how each VRF has its own routing table and its own forwarding table, and how the default global routing table sits alongside multiple VRFs without contamination. You see VRF configuration on Cisco routers and you read VRF specific show commands.

Lesson 4: Route Distinguisher and Route Target
Two customers can both use the same private IP block, say 10.0.0.0/8. How does a single provider carry both without confusion? Route Distinguisher solves the uniqueness problem and Route Target solves the import and export problem. You learn the precise difference, why both are needed, what each value looks like on the wire, and how RT is used to build VPN topologies of any shape: full mesh, hub and spoke, or extranet.

Lesson 5: VRF Route Leaking
The clean wall between VRFs is sometimes a problem. A shared services VRF might host DNS or NTP for many customers. A central internet VRF might give all customers internet access. You learn the controlled way to leak routes between VRFs using Route Target import and export. You see the danger of careless leaking and the design pattern that makes leaking safe.

Lesson 6: Why behind iBGP
MPLS L3VPN uses iBGP inside the provider core, not eBGP. Why? You revisit the basic difference between iBGP and eBGP and you see exactly why iBGP fits the MPLS VPN design. You see how the PE routers form iBGP sessions with each other, how the core stays simple, and how this choice keeps the VPN routes invisible to the P routers in the middle.

Lesson 7: Multiprotocol BGP (MP-BGP)
Plain BGP carries IPv4 unicast routes. MPLS L3VPN routes are not plain IPv4. They are VPNv4 routes, which are IPv4 prefixes prefixed with a Route Distinguisher and tagged with an MPLS label. Plain BGP cannot carry this. You learn what address families are, why BGP needed multiprotocol extensions, how the VPNv4 address family is negotiated between neighbors, and how MP-BGP becomes the protocol that carries customer routes across the provider core.

Lesson 8: Multiprotocol BGP Lab
This lesson takes everything from Lesson 7 to the keyboard. You build the MP-BGP session on EVE-NG, you enable the VPNv4 address family, you watch VPNv4 routes appear in show commands, and you see exactly what changes when you turn the address family on. Every command is shown and explained.

Lesson 9: Why behind LDP
You know labels matter. But how does router A know which label router B uses for the same destination? Without agreement, the entire MPLS forwarding plane falls apart. You learn the why of LDP by sitting with this question first. You see why a separate protocol is needed, why it cannot be folded into the IGP, and why LDP became the standard.

Lesson 10: Label Distribution Protocol (LDP)
With the why clear, you learn the mechanics. LDP neighborship discovery, the LDP hello, the LDP session, label binding, label advertisement modes, and the way an end to end LSP is constructed across many routers. You see real LDP debug output on Cisco routers and you learn to read the LDP database.

Lesson 11: LDP Label and MPLS Packet Walkthrough
This is the lesson that makes the entire MPLS data plane click. You follow a single packet from a CE router into the provider core. At the ingress PE, two labels are pushed: the inner VPN label and the outer transport label. At each P router, the outer label is swapped. At the egress PE, the labels are popped and the packet is delivered to the destination CE. You see exactly what each label does at each hop and you understand penultimate hop popping and why it exists.

Lesson 12: Complete picture of MPLS VPNs and Lab
This is the integration lesson. You build the full MPLS L3VPN network in EVE-NG: two customers, PE routers, P routers in the core, OSPF in the core, LDP across the core, MP-BGP between the PEs, VRFs on the PE routers, RD and RT on the VRFs. You bring customer traffic up and you watch it flow with the correct labels at every hop.

Lesson 13: LIB, FIB, and CEF
The final lesson opens the data plane structures that make MPLS forwarding so fast. The Label Information Base stores every label the router knows about. The Forwarding Information Base stores the fast forwarding entries. Cisco Express Forwarding is the technology that turns the routing decision into a hardware speed operation. You learn what each structure holds, how they relate to each other, and why MPLS label forwarding is faster than traditional IP route lookup.

Course Curriculum

Know your instructor


Frequently asked Questions


What is covered in the English version of MPLS from Scratch?

The English version covers MPLS end to end: why MPLS exists, VRF, Route Distinguisher and Route Target, VRF route leaking, why iBGP in the core, Multiprotocol BGP and the VPNv4 address family, LDP and label distribution, a full MPLS packet walk, the complete L3VPN design with labs, and the data plane structures LIB, FIB, and CEF..

How is the English version different from the Hindi version?

The curriculum, the labs, and the depth are identical. Only the teaching language differs. The English version uses the full vocabulary used in RFCs and Cisco study guides. If you want both at one price, the Package is the recommended purchase.

How long is the English course?

17 hours of video across 13 lessons, with EVE-NG labs throughout.

What prerequisites do I need?

Comfort with Routing Fundamentals, OSPF, and BGP. MPLS uses an IGP and BGP under the hood.

Does this course cover MPLS Traffic Engineering or Segment Routing?

The course focuses on MPLS L3VPN, which is what most networks and most jobs require. MPLS TE and Segment Routing are advanced extensions that deserve separate dedicated coverage.

Are Route Distinguisher and Route Target both fully covered?

Yes. Lesson 4 is dedicated to RD and RT. You learn the exact difference between them, why both are needed, and how RT is used to build VPN topologies of any shape.

Is the VPNv4 address family covered?

Labs ki explanation Hindi mein hai. Router ki CLI commands aur output English mein hi rehte hain kyunki real networks mein bhi yahi hota hai. Yeh aap ko Hindi mein samajh ke real English commands se bhi familiar bana deta hai.

Will this course prepare me for CCNP and CCIE exams?

Yes. The English version uses the same vocabulary that appears in Cisco blueprints. MPLS L3VPN is part of CCNP Service Provider, CCIE Service Provider, and CCIE Enterprise scenarios.

Is the packet walkthrough actually shown end to end?

Yes. Lesson 11 is dedicated to the packet walk. You follow a packet from CE to CE and see every label push, swap, and pop at every hop. By the end of the lesson the entire MPLS data plane feels natural.

Is LIB, FIB, and CEF really covered?

Yes. Lesson 13 is dedicated to these three structures. Most online MPLS courses skip this. You will understand exactly why MPLS forwarding is faster than IP route lookup.

What lab platform is used?

All labs run on EVE-NG with Cisco IOS images. The same topology can be rebuilt on your own EVE-NG setup.

Can I take this course before learning OSPF and BGP?

You can watch it, but you will not get the full value. MPLS L3VPN sits on top of an IGP and on top of iBGP. Without those two clear, every MPLS lesson will feel harder than it needs to.

What should I take after the English MPLS course?

The most common next step is SD-WAN from Scratch because SD-WAN sits on top of MPLS in many designs and replaces it in others. After that, VXLAN with BGP-EVPN extends the MP-BGP concept into the data center.

Do I get a certificate?

Yes. You receive a completion certificate from BridgeWhy that you can put on LinkedIn or share during job applications.

Who teaches this course?

The instructor is Vishnu Dutt, with 19+ years of experience at Cisco. He has taught networking to 15000+ learners across 100+ countries. Read more on the About Us page.

Where can I see all your courses?

You can browse every course on the BridgeWhy Course Store. For complete access, see the 1 Year Access or Lifetime Access plans.

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