MPLS History
Original drivers towards label switching:
- Designed to make routers faster
- ATM switches were faster than routers
- Fixed length label lookup faster than longest match used by IP routing
- Allow a device to do the same job as a router with performance of ATM switch
- Enabled IP + ATM integration
- Mapping of IP to ATM had become very complex, hence simplify by replacing ATM signalling protocols with IP control protocols