Cisco Systems' Tag Switching Architecture Overview

This document provides an overview of a novel approach to network layer packet forwarding, called tag switching. The two main components of the tag switching architecture forwarding and control are described. Forwarding is accomplished using simple label-swapping techniques, while the existing network layer routing protocols plus mechanisms for binding and distributing tags are used for control. Tag switching can retain the scaling properties of IP, and can help improve the scalability of IP networks. While tag switching does not rely on ATM, it can straightforwardly be applied to ATM switches. A range of tag switching applications and deployment scenarios are described.