Definition of MPLS
The MPLS labels are advertised between routers so that they can build a label-to-label mapping. These labels are attached to the IP packets, enabling the routers to forward the traffic by looking at the label and not the destination IP address. The packets are forwarded by label switching instead of by IP switching.
The label switching technique is not new. Frame Relay and ATM use it to move frames or cells throughout a network. In Frame Relay, the frame can be any length, whereas in ATM, a fixed-length cell consists of a header of 5 bytes and a payload of 48 bytes. The header of the ATM cell and the Frame Relay frame refer to the virtual circuit that the cell or frame resides on. The similarity between Frame Relay and ATM ...
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