MPLS Traffic Engineering Overview

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) Traffic Engineering (TE) is supported on Extreme devices. MPLS can be used to direct packets through a network over a pre-determined path of routers. Forwarding decisions in MPLS are based on the contents of a label applied to the packet.

Traffic engineering is the ability to direct packets through a network efficiently, using information gathered about network resources. When used as an application of MPLS, traffic engineering involves creating paths that make the best use of available network resources, avoiding points of congestion and making efficient use of high bandwidth interfaces. Packets traveling over these paths are forwarded using MPLS.