Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a standards-approved technology for speeding up network traffic flow and making it easier to manage. MPLS involves setting up a specific path for a given sequence
Requires Free Membership to View
of packets, identified by a
label put in each packet,
thus saving the time needed for a router to
look up the address to the next node to
forward the packet to. MPLS is called multiprotocol because it works with the Internet Protocol (IP),
Asynchronous Transport Mode (ATM), and
frame
relay network protocols.
With reference to the standard model for a network (the Open Systems Interconnection, or OSI model),
MPLS allows most packets to be forwarded at the layer 2
(switching) level rather than at the layer
3 (routing)
level. In addition to moving traffic faster overall, MPLS makes it easy to manage a network for
quality of service (QoS).
For these reasons, the technique is expected to be readily adopted as networks begin to carry more
and different mixtures of traffic.
(This information courtesy of Whatis.com.)
This was first published in November 2005