Multiprotocol Label Switching
Sign in to saveAlso known as MPLS, MLPS, Multi-protocol label switching
network routing scheme based on labels identifying paths
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- routing protocol
Show 4 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Ipsilon Networks
- publication date
- 2001-00-00
- topic's main category
- Category:MPLS networking
- Commons category
- MPLS
via Wikidata · CC0
~24 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a routing technique in telecommunications networks that directs data from one node to the next based on labels rather than network addresses. Whereas network addresses identify endpoints, MPLS labels identify established paths between endpoints. MPLS can encapsulate packets of various network protocols and supports a range of access technologies, including T1/E1, ATM, Frame Relay, and DSL.
MPLS was originally developed to improve packet forwarding by reducing the reliance on complex routing table lookups. With the introduction of hardware-based forwarding engines, forwarding speed is no longer the main reason for deployment, and MPLS today is more often used for traffic engineering, differentiated services quality of service, and BGP/MPLS IP virtual private networks (VPNs).
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Multiprotocol Label Switching” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.