MPLS label space for optical packet switched networks

Generalised multiprotocol label switching (GMPLS) has been proposed as a control plane for optical packet switching (OPS). However, the label stack construct of GMPLS is problematic for envisaged OPS architectures as it requires an arbitrary length header structure and (relatively) complex header manipulation. This paper proposes a new label stack encoding that allows arbitrary depth aggregation but that maintains a constant header length and removes the need for complex header processing. Most notably, given a requirement of an L length label space for uniqueness of label switching it achieves arbitrary depth aggregation through-a 2L length header label.