- What is Label Switching?
- Why Use Label Switching?
- The ZIP Code Analogy
- Why A Label IS Not an Address
- How Label Switching is Implemented and How it Came About
- Clarification of Terms
- The Need for a QOS-based Internet
- Label Switching's Legacy: X.25 and Virtual Circuits
- MPLS: Status and Concepts
- Examples of Label and QOS Relationships
- Determination of the Physical Path Through the Network: The Label Switched Path (LSP)
- Summary
Summary
Traditional IP forwarding is too slow to handle the large traffic loads in the Internet or an internet. Even with enhanced techniques, such as a fast-table lookup for certain datagrams, the load on the router is often more than the router can handle. The result may be lost traffic, lost connections, and overall poor performance in the IP-based network. Label switching, in contrast to IP forwarding, is proving to be an effective solution to the problem. The main attributes of label switching are fast relay of the traffic, scalability, simplicity, and route control.
MPLS represents a vendor-independent specification for label switching. It improves the performance of network layer routing and the scalability of the network layer, and provides greater flexibility in the delivery of routing services.