Abstract

This document provides an overview of tag switching. Tag switching is a way to combine the label-swapping forwarding paradigm with network layer routing. This has several advantages. Tags can have a wide spectrum of forwarding granularities, so at one end of the spectrum a tag could be associated with a group of destinations, while at the other a tag could be associated with a single application flow. At the same time forwarding based on tag switching, due to its simplicity, is well suited to high performance forwarding. These factors facilitate the development of a routing system which is both functionally rich and scalable. Finally, tag switching simplifies integration of routers and ATM switches by employing common addressing, routing, and management procedures.

Authors

Dave Katz (dkatz@juniper.net)
Dino Farinacci (dino@cisco.com)
Bruce Davie (bsd@cisco.com)
George Swallow (swallow@cisco.com)
Yakov Rekhter (yakov@juniper.net)
Eric Rosen (erosen@cisco.com)

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