Packet Fragmentation

The E Series router supports the reassembly of IP-fragmented L2TP packets. (For more information, see the IP Reassembly for Tunnels chapter in JunosE IP Services Configuration Guide.) However, it is preferable to prevent fragmentation within L2TP tunnels because of the effects of fragmentation and reassembly on performance.

To prevent fragmentation, PPP LCP negotiation of the maximum receive unit (MRU) may be used to determine a proper maximum transmission unit (MTU). However, the normal automatic method of determining the proper MRU to negotiate (by evaluating the MRU of all lower layers in the interface stack) is not adequate for L2TP. The initial LCP negotiation between PPP in the client and the LAC is inadequate because it does not cover the entire extent of the eventual PPP session that travels all the way from the client to the LNS. Furthermore, even if PPP in the LNS chooses to renegotiate the MRU, it has no way to determine the proper MRU, since it does not know the minimum MRU on all of the intervening links between it and the LAC.

To overcome the inadequacy of normal determination of the MRU under such circumstances, you can configure the PPP MRU size by using the ppp mru command in Profile Configuration mode, Interface Configuration mode, or Subinterface Configuration mode. Use Profile Configuration mode for dynamic PPP interfaces, and Interface Configuration mode or Subinterface Configuration mode for static PPP interfaces.

When you specify the size, you need to take into account the MRU for all possible links between the LAC and the LNS. You must also take into account the L2TP encapsulation that is added to all packets entering the tunnel.

For example, if the link between the LAC and LNS with the lowest MRU were an Ethernet link, the following calculation applies:

If the smallest intervening link is an Ethernet link, specifying ppp mru 1442 at either the LAC or LNS guarantees that no fragmentation will occur within the L2TP tunnel.