Binding Packets to FECs in 6LSA
The MITRE Corporation
IETF Internet Draft "IPv6 Label Switching Architecture (6LSA)" [6LSA] [2] proposes using the IPv6 Flow Label field to switch packets through an IPv6 subnetwork. The use of these IPv6 Label Switched Paths (6LSPs) can provide means for traffic engineering and potentially increase the speed of packets traversing a routed network with no increase in bandwidth. The 6LSA draft defines two processes: 1) grouping packets with identical forwarding behavior into a Forwarding Equivalence Class (FEC), 2) forwarding all packets belonging to an FEC along the same path. The assignment of packets to an FEC is called binding. The purpose of this document is to expand on these two processes, discussing specific methods of performing the required functions.