MPLS sits between the second and third layers of the OSI model. This results in lower transfer speeds and less hardware usage. Crucially, packets are forwarded at the switching level rather than the router level. The first route to make contact gives each packet a label which can be read by routers further down the chain. The MPLS solution to this problem is to make the first router that intercepts a packet to be the one that decides its future route. In other words, traditional IP routing provides a limited amount of information on the route a packet should take. The reason is that the router has no information about how the packet should travel to its destination. While this seems pretty reasonable on the surface, it isn’t conducive to efficiency. This tells the router where the packet’s final destination is.

On a traditional IT network, whenever a router receives an IP packet it is provided with a destination IP address. As a result, routers throughout the network don’t need to conduct IP lookups because all the information is already there. Routers then read this label to pass the packets straight to their destination.

MPLS uses label switching and finds the end router to set a route straight to the end location. At each, the routers provide an IP lookup to find where next to send the data. In most networks each router decides on the route passing packets will take. In this article, we look at what MPLS is and why it is here to stay for the long term. However, we argue that this is far from the case. Over the past few years, there has been an attitude that MPLS is becoming outdated and will be replaced by more efficient technologies like SD-WAN. Today any organization looking to increase their network efficiency and scalability would be well advised to consider using MPLS. As scalability and reliability become bigger concerns for enterprises, MPLS has offered users a way to prioritize connections within a service. MPLS has become popular as a technology used to enhance Ethernet connectivity.

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