APPARATUS, SYSTEM, AND METHOD FOR IMPOSING LABEL STACK ENTRIES ON MPLS PACKETS

The disclosed system may include (1) receiving, at an ingress node within a network, a request to forward a packet along a label-switched path to an egress node within the network, (2) identifying a limit on the number of labels that the ingress node is capable of forwarding within a label stack of the packet, (3) determining that the number of hops within the label-switched path exceeds the limit on the number of labels that the ingress node is capable of forwarding, (4) selecting at least one of the hops within the label-switched path to act as a delegation node that imposes, onto the label stack of the packet, at least one label corresponding to a downstream hop within the label-switched path and (5) forwarding the packet from the ingress node to the delegation node to enable the delegation node to impose the label onto the label stack.