Protocol Families

A protocol family is a group of logical properties within an interface configuration. Protocol families include all the protocols that make up a protocol suite. To use a protocol within a particular suite, you must configure the entire protocol family as a logical property for an interface. The protocol families include common and not-so-common protocol suites.

Common Protocol Suites

JUNOS protocol families include the following common protocol suites:

• Inet—Supports IP protocol traffic, including Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), and Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP).
• Inet6—Supports IPv6 protocol traffic, including Routing Information Protocol for IPv6 (RIPng), Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS), and BGP.
• ISO—Supports IS-IS traffic.
• MPLS—Supports Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS).

If your router is operating in secure context, the Inet6, ISO, and MPLS protocol families are disabled on the router by default. You must enable these protocol families for a router in secure mode to forward IPv6, IS-IS, and MPLS packets. For more information, see Enabling IPv6 in Secure Context, Configuring the IS-IS Protocol, and Enabling MPLS.

Caution: Because MPLS is operating in packet mode, security services are not available.

Note: JUNOS software with enhanced services security processing is not applied to IPv6 or IS-IS packets forwarded by the router.

Other Protocol Suites

In addition to the common protocol suites, JUNOS protocol families sometimes use the following protocol suites:

• ccc—Circuit cross-connect (CCC).
• mlfr-uni-nni—Multilink Frame Relay (MLFR) FRF.16 user-to-network network-to-network (UNI NNI).
• mlfr-end-to-end—Multilink Frame Relay end-to-end.
• mlppp—Mulitlink Point-to-Point Protocol.
• tcc—Translational cross-connect (TCC).
• tnp—Trivial Network Protocol. This Juniper Networks proprietary protocol provides communication between the Routing Engine and the router's packet forwarding components. The JUNOS software automatically configures this protocol family on the router's internal interfaces only.