Method and system for label-based packet forwarding among multiple forwarding elements

An article of manufacture comprising:

• a machine accessible medium including content that when accessed by a machine causes the machine to
• determine a path through one or more of a plurality of forwarding elements from an ingress port of one of the plurality of forwarding elements to an egress port of another of the plurality of forwarding elements;
• and
• add one or more entries to label switch tables associated with one or more of the forwarding elements in the path to label data packets for forwarding among the forwarding elements in the path.

A method comprising:

• receiving a data packet on an ingress port of one of a plurality of forwarding elements from a network;
• labeling the data packet for forwarding among two or more of the plurality of forwarding elements;
• forwarding the data packet through the two or more of the plurality of forwarding elements from the ingress port at which the data packet was received to an egress port from which the data packet will be transmitted to a next hop in the network;
• removing the inter-forwarding label from the data packet;
• and
• transmitting the data packet from the egress port to the next hop in the network.