Autonomous system border router (ASBR) advertising routes with a same forwarding label

A first autonomous system border router (ASBR), comprising:

• one or more processing elements;
• memory;
• a plurality of interfaces that send and receive packets;
• and
• one or more packet switching mechanisms that packet switch packets among said interfaces;
• wherein the first ASBR performs operations, including:
• receiving, via a routing protocol by an autonomous system border router (ASBR) from a particular router in the same autonomous system, a plurality of same-labeled received routes advertised with a same first forwarding label within a merging context;
• and
• in response to each of the plurality of same-labeled received routes having the same first forwarding label to use to forward packets to the particular router and being in the same merging context, the first ASBR determining a merged forwarding label and advertising to a peer ASBR in another autonomous system (AS) each of the plurality of same-labeled received routes with the merged forwarding label for the peer ASBR to use to forward packets to the first ASBR, with said advertising each of the plurality of same-labeled received routes with the merged forwarding label meaning that the value of each route of the plurality of same-labeled received route is advertised with the merged forwarding label to the peer ASBR.