Table of Contents:

Definition and Overview

1. Introduction

2. Traditional Routing and Packet Switching

3. MPLS and Its Components

4. MPLS Operation

5. MPLS Protocol Stack Architecture

6. MPLS Applications

7. Standard Groups

Self-Test

Glossary

PDF of this tutorial

ATM
asynchronous transfer mode

BGP
border gateway protocol

CoS
class of service

CR–LDP
constraint-based label distribution protocol

FEC
forward equivalence class

IETF
Internet Engineering Task Force

IP
Internet protocol

LAN
local-area network

LDP
label distribution protocol

LER
label edge router

LIB
label information base

LSP
label switched path

LSR
label switched router

MAC
media access control

MPLS
multiprotocol label switching

OSPF
open shortest path first

PNNI
private network-to-network interface

PPP
point-to-point protocol

QoS
quality of service

RSVP
resource reservation protocol

SONET
synchronous optical network

TCP
transmission control protocol

UDP
user datagram protocol

VC
virtual channel

VCI
virtual channel identifier

VP
virtual path

VPI
virtual packet identifier

VPN
virtual private network