Graceful Shutdown in MPLS and Generalized MPLS Traffic Engineering Networks

MPLS-TE Graceful Shutdown is a method for explicitly notifying the nodes in a Traffic Engineering (TE) enabled network that the TE capability on a link or on an entire Label Switching Router (LSR) is going to be disabled. MPLS-TE graceful shutdown mechanisms are tailored toward addressing planned outage in the network. This document provides requirements and protocol mechanisms to reduce or eliminate traffic disruption in the event of a planned shutdown of a network resource. These operations are equally applicable to both MPLS-TE and its Generalized MPLS (GMPLS) extensions. This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is published for informational purposes.