what is the difference between address-family ipv4 and vpnv4? The answer is so simple, we always accept and forward ip packets to customers, for this we need to use ipv4 address-family. When the customers packets are being received by PE they become labeled one and to forward labeled packets to different PE/RR; address-family vpnv4 is required. In short we can say that ipv4 address-family is being used for customers and vpnv4 address-family is used by SP core.