Juniper Networks, Inc.

Benjamin Hickey

Rahul Aggarwal

Jerome Pascal Moisand

Sanjay Wadhwa

The invention is directed towards techniques for forwarding subscriber frames through a Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) aggregation network using MPLS labels. Layer two (L2) network devices, such as access nodes, of a service provider (SP) network implement MPLS functionality in the data plane, but do not implement an MPLS signaling protocol in the control plane. The L2 network devices include an interface for configuring a static pool of labels applied in the data plane of the L2 network device to output MPLS communications to the MPLS network. The access nodes may be configured by an administrator to maintain static pools of subscriber labels and MPLS labels. The access nodes autonomously allocate the subscriber labels to subscriber devices that request broadband services from a Broadband Services Router (BSR), and distribute the subscriber labels and MPLS labels as upstream assigned labels.

Layer two (L2) network access node having data plane MPLS

The invention is directed towards techniques for forwarding subscriber frames through a Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) aggregation network using MPLS labels. Layer two (L2) network devices, such as access nodes, of a service provider (SP) network implement MPLS functionality in the data plane, but do not implement an MPLS signaling protocol in the control plane. The L2 network devices include a pool of labels applied in the data plane of the L2 network device to output MPLS communications to the MPLS network, and a protocol that allows a layer three (L3) device to control provision of L2 functionality by the L2 device. The pool of labels is dynamically configured by the L3 device via the protocol. The access nodes distribute the subscriber labels and MPLS labels as upstream assigned labels.

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Bronte, Australia

Benjamin Hickey