Network tunneling using a label stack delimiter

A method comprising:

• receiving, by an ingress routing device of a provider network, a packet from a customer network;
• determining that the packet includes a customer multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) label stack including a customer network label and that the packet is to be tunneled through the provider network via a provider network tunnel;
• based on the determination that the packet includes the customer MPLS label stack including the customer network label, adding a delimiter label to the packet indicative of a bottom of a provider network label stack, setting a bottom of stack identifier in the delimiter label to a value that indicates that the delimiter label is not the bottom of a label stack, adding one or more provider network labels to the packet;
• forwarding the packet to a next routing device of the provider network along the provider network tunnel;
• forming, by the ingress routing device, an operations and maintenance (OAM) packet;
• adding a generic alert label (GAL) to the OAM packet, wherein the GAL includes an indication that the GAL is a bottom of a provider network label stack for the OAM packet;
• adding the one or more provider network labels to the OAM packet, such that the OAM packet comprises the same provider network label stack following the GAL as the packet received from the customer network;
• and
• forwarding the OAM packet to the next routing device of the provider network along the provider network tunnel, such that the OAM packet is tunneled through the same provider network tunnel as the packet received from the customer network.

A method comprising:

• receiving, by an egress router of a provider network, a packet comprising a provider network label stack;
• removing the provider network label stack from the packet;
• determining whether the packet comprises a delimiter label or a generic alert label (GAL) following the provider network label stack;
• determining that the packet comprises an operations and maintenance (OAM) packet when the packet comprises the GAL following the provider network label stack, rather than the delimiter label, and
• based on the determination that the packet comprises the OAM packet, responding to the packet in accordance with multiprotocol label stacking (MPLS) OAM protocol.

A routing device of a provider network, the routing device comprising:

• one or more interface cards for receiving and forwarding packets;
• and
• a control unit configured to receive a packet from a customer network via the one or more interface cards, determine that the packet includes a customer multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) label stack including a customer network label and that the packet is to be tunneled through the provider network via a provider network tunnel, based on the determination that the packet includes the customer MPLS label stack including the customer network label, add a delimiter label to the packet indicative of a bottom of a provider network label stack, set a bottom of stack identifier in the delimiter label to a value that indicates that the delimiter label is not the bottom of a label stack, and one or more provider network labels to the packet, wherein after adding the delimiter label and the one or more provider network labels to the packet, a label stack for the packet comprises the one or more provider network labels, the delimiter label following the provider network labels, and the customer network label following the delimiter label, wherein the control unit is configured to analyze the label stack for the packet, perform load balancing on a plurality of provider network tunnels, including the provider network tunnel, based at least in part on the analysis of the label stack for the packet, and, after performing the load balancing, forward the packet to a next routing device of the provider network along the provider network tunnel via the one or more interface cards.

An ingress routing device of a provider network, the ingress routing device comprising:

• one or more interface cards for receiving and forwarding packets;
• and
• a control unit configured to receive a packet from a customer network via the one or more interface cards, determine that the packet includes a customer multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) label stack including a customer network label and that the packet is to be tunneled through the provider network via a provider network tunnel, based on the determination that the packet includes the customer MPLS label stack including the customer network label, add a delimiter label to the packet indicative of a bottom of a provider network label stack, set a bottom of stack identifier in the delimiter label to a value that indicates that the delimiter label is not the bottom of a label stack, and one or more provider network labels to the packet, forward the packet to a next routing device of the provider network along the provider network tunnel via the one or more interface cards, form an operations and maintenance (OAM) packet, add a generic alert label (GAL) to the OAM packet, wherein the GAL includes an indication that the GAL is a bottom of a provider network label stack for the OAM packet, add the one or more provider network labels to the OAM packet such that the OAM packet comprises the same provider network label stack following the GAL as the packet received from the customer network, and forward the OAM packet to the next routing device of the provider network along the provider network tunnel such that the OAM packet is tunneled through the same provider network tunnel as the packet received from the customer network.

A system comprising:

• an ingress routing device of a provider network comprising a control unit configured to receive a packet from a customer network, determine that the packet includes a customer network label and that the packet is to be tunneled through the provider network via a provider network tunnel, based on the determination, add a delimiter label to the packet indicative of a bottom of a first provider network label stack, set a bottom of stack identifier in the delimiter label to a value that indicates that the delimiter label is not the bottom of a label stack, add one or more provider network labels to the packet wherein after adding the delimiter label and the one or more provider network labels to the packet, a label stack for the packet comprises the one or more provider network labels, the delimiter label following the provider network labels, and the customer network label following the delimiter label, wherein the control unit is configured to analyze the label stack for the packet, perform load balancing on a plurality of provider network tunnels, including the provider network tunnel, based at least in part on the analysis of the label stack for the packet, and, after performing the load balancing, forward the packet to a next routing device of the provider network along the provider network tunnel;
• and
• an egress routing device of the provider network comprising a control unit configured to receive the packet comprising a second provider network label stack, remove the second provider network label stack from the packet, determine whether the packet comprises the delimiter label following the provider network label stack, and, when the packet comprises the delimiter label, forward the packet to a customer network interface device.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a processor of a routing device of a provider network to:

• receive a packet from a customer network;
• determine that the packet includes a customer multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) label stack including a customer network label and that the packet is to be tunneled through the provider network via a provider network tunnel;
• based on the determination that the packet includes the customer MPLS label stack including the customer network label, add a delimiter label to the packet indicative of a bottom of a provider network label stack, set a bottom of stack identifier in the delimiter label to a value that indicates that the delimiter label is not the bottom of a label stack, and add one or more provider network labels to the packet, wherein after adding the delimiter label and the one or more provider network labels to the packet, a label stack for the packet comprises the one or more provider network labels, the delimiter label following the provider network labels, and the customer network label following the delimiter label;
• analyze the label stack for the packet;
• perform load balancing on a plurality of provider network tunnels, including the provider network tunnel, based at least in part on the analysis of the label stack for the packet;
• and
• after performing the load balancing, forward the packet to a next routing device of the provider network along the provider network tunnel.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a processor of a routing device of a provider network to:

• receive a packet comprising a provider network label stack;
• remove the provider network label stack from the packet;
• determine whether the packet comprises a delimiter label or a generic alert label (GAL) following the provider network label stack;
• determining that the packet comprises a customer network label stack when the packet comprises the delimiter label;
• determine that the packet comprises an operations and maintenance (OAM) packet when the packet comprises the GAL following the provider network label stack, rather than the delimiter label;
• when the packet comprises the OAM packet, respond to the packet in accordance with multiprotocol label stacking (MPLS) OAM protocol;
• and
• when the packet comprises the delimiter label, forward the packet to a customer network interface device without removing the customer network label stack from the packet.