Description

 

This article provides more information about the default MRU value setting in ACX Series devices and confirms with an example that MRU = MTU on all ACX platform devices.

 

Symptoms

 

In ACX Series devices, the MRU value is not displayed in the output of show interface <interface> extensive and customer would like to confirm if it is the same as in MX Series devices, that is whether MRU = MTU + 8.

 

Solution

 

The following lab test explains the default MRU setting on an ACX device:

 
ACX2200------------------------MX2020
 

ACX

labroot@jtac-acx2200> show interfaces terse extensive xe-0/3/1                
Interface               Admin Link Proto    Local                 Remote
xe-0/3/1                up    up
xe-0/3/1.0              up    up   inet     10.1.1.2/24    
                                   multiservice
labroot@jtac-acx2200> show interfaces extensive xe-0/3/1 | match MTU 
  Link-level type: Ethernet, MTU: 1514, LAN-PHY mode, Speed: 10Gbps, BPDU Error: None, Loop Detect PDU Error: None, Ethernet-Switching Error: None,
    Carrier transitions: 3, Errors: 0, Drops: 0, Collisions: 0, Aged packets: 0, FIFO errors: 0, HS link CRC errors: 0, MTU errors: 0, Resource errors: 0
    Protocol inet, MTU: 1500
    Protocol multiservice, MTU: Unlimited, Generation: 175, Route table: 0

MX

labroot@jtac-mx2010-re0> show interfaces terse xe-7/1/0    
Interface               Admin Link Proto    Local                 Remote
xe-7/1/0                up    up
xe-7/1/0.0              up    up   inet     10.1.1.3/24    
                                   multiservice

labroot@jtac-mx2010-re0> show interfaces extensive xe-7/1/0 | match MTU 
  Link-level type: Ethernet, MTU: 9014, MRU: 9022, LAN-PHY mode, Speed: 10Gbps, BPDU Error: None, Loop Detect PDU Error: None, MAC-REWRITE Error: None,
    Carrier transitions: 1, Errors: 0, Drops: 0, Collisions: 0, Aged packets: 0, FIFO errors: 0, HS link CRC errors: 0, MTU errors: 0, Resource errors: 0
    Protocol inet, MTU: 9000
    Protocol multiservice, MTU: Unlimited, Generation: 179, Route table: 0

In the above output, the MTU value on the MX device is changed to 9014 ethernet MTU and on the ACX device, the default value of 1514 is used.

When we ping from the MX device to the ACX device with an ICMP payload of 1472, it would accept the packet and punt it to the Routing Engine.

labroot@jtac-mx2010-re0> ping 10.1.1.2 count 2 size 1472 do-not-fragment 
PING 10.1.1.2 (10.1.1.2): 1472 data bytes
1480 bytes from 10.1.1.2: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=1.291 ms
1480 bytes from 10.1.1.2: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=1.370 ms

--- 10.1.1.2 ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 1.291/1.331/1.370/0.040 ms

MX

labroot@jtac-mx2010-re0> monitor traffic interface xe-7/1/0 no-resolve 
verbose output suppressed, use <detail> or <extensive> for full protocol decode
Address resolution is OFF.
Listening on xe-7/1/0, capture size 96 bytes

08:38:34.536987 Out IP truncated-ip - 1440 bytes missing! 10.1.1.3 > 10.1.1.2: ICMP echo request, id 18569, seq 0, length 1480
08:38:34.538220  In IP 10.1.1.2 > 10.1.1.3: ICMP echo reply, id 18569, seq 0, length 1480
08:38:35.538297 Out IP truncated-ip - 1440 bytes missing! 10.1.1.3 > 10.1.1.2: ICMP echo request, id 18569, seq 1, length 1480
08:38:35.539611  In IP 10.1.1.2 > 10.1.1.3: ICMP echo reply, id 18569, seq 1, length 1480

ACX

labroot@jtac-acx2200> monitor traffic interface xe-0/3/1 no-resolve 
verbose output suppressed, use <detail> or <extensive> for full protocol decode
Address resolution is OFF.
Listening on xe-0/3/1, capture size 96 bytes

08:38:34.529782  In IP 10.1.1.3 > 10.1.1.2: ICMP echo request, id 18569, seq 0, length 1480
08:38:34.529840 Out IP truncated-ip - 1440 bytes missing! 10.1.1.2 > 10.1.1.3: ICMP echo reply, id 18569, seq 0, length 1480
08:38:35.531074  In IP 10.1.1.3 > 10.1.1.2: ICMP echo request, id 18569, seq 1, length 1480
08:38:35.531138 Out IP truncated-ip - 1440 bytes missing! 10.1.1.2 > 10.1.1.3: ICMP echo reply, id 18569, seq 1, length 1480

If we initiate a ping with a payload of 1473, it would not punt the packet to the RE:

labroot@jtac-mx2010-re0> ping 10.1.1.2 count 2 size 1473 do-not-fragment    
PING 10.1.1.2 (10.1.1.2): 1473 data bytes

--- 10.1.1.2 ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss

MX

labroot@jtac-mx2010-re0> monitor traffic interface xe-7/1/0 no-resolve    
verbose output suppressed, use <detail> or <extensive> for full protocol decode
Address resolution is OFF.
Listening on xe-7/1/0, capture size 96 bytes

08:39:51.134500 Out IP truncated-ip - 1441 bytes missing! 10.1.1.3 > 10.1.1.2: ICMP echo request, id 28809, seq 0, length 1481
08:39:52.138302 Out IP truncated-ip - 1441 bytes missing! 10.1.1.3 > 10.1.1.2: ICMP echo request, id 28809, seq 1, length 1481

ACX

labroot@jtac-acx2200> monitor traffic interface xe-0/3/1 no-resolve    
verbose output suppressed, use <detail> or <extensive> for full protocol decode
Address resolution is OFF.
Listening on xe-0/3/1, capture size 96 bytes

^C
0 packets received by filter
0 packets dropped by kernel

Whereas if we change the MTU value as 9014 on the ACX device and as 1514 on the MX device, the MX device would be able to accept the ICMP payload till 1480 since the MRU is 1522, that is, 1480B ICMP payload + 8B ICMP header + 20B IP header + 14B Ethernet Header + extra 8B =1522.

From the above test, it confirms that ACX devices will accept a packet/punt the traffic to the RE if the received packet size is a maximum size of 1472 ICMP payload + 8B ICMP header + 20B IP header + 14B Ethernet Header = 1514.

Thus MRU = MTU is for all ACX platforms.