Multiprotocol Label Switching Meta-Frames

MPLS is one of the most attractive solution for traffic engineering. With MPLS, the advantages of a label switching technology in the core of the Internet are complemented by its applicability at the edge especially for deploying secure and robust virtual private networks. The existence of MPLS at the edge of the Internet also allows new label forwarding based solutions to be deployed. We propose a framework that uses larger MPLS frames called MPLS meta-frames to increase the throughput of MPLS networks. Such an approach could also help future Terabit speed GMPLS optical core switches by increasing the average length of the packets traversing the Internet core and so reducing the performance requirements of these switches. Processing packets at the network edge in this way where it can be done with low-performance hardware such as software routers, results in more "core-friendly" Internet traffic