Performance measurement, telemetry, and oam in mpls networks using entropy labels

A system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
• receiving a packet that is to be sent along a route through at least a network;
• encapsulating the packet with a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) header;
• populating a first portion of the MPLS header with a network slice identifier (ID) indicating a network slice;
• populating a special purpose label of the MPLS header with an indication of a monitoring operation to be performed;
• and
• sending the packet having the MPLS header along the route.

One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed, cause one or more computing devices to perform operations comprising:

• receiving a packet that is to be sent along a route through at least a network;
• encapsulating the packet with a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) header;
• altering the MPLS header such that:
• a first portion of the MPLS header comprises a network slice identifier (ID) indicating a network slice;
• and
• a special purpose label of the MPLS header comprises an indication of a monitoring operation to be performed;
• and
• sending the packet having the MPLS header along the route.