Mechanism and apparatus for path protection when using compressed segment routing label stacks

Systems and methods of network traffic engineering are provided. The system includes a switch and a controller. The controller can maintain a monitoring segment identifier set defining a path for traffic intended for a destination device. The controller can maintain a forwarding segment identifier set representing a compressed version of the monitoring segment identifier set such that traffic, when labeled according to the forwarding segment identifier set, will follow the path defined by the monitoring segment identifier set. The controller can monitor a status of the path defined by the monitoring segment identifier set. The controller can, subject to determining that the path defined by the monitoring segment identifier set is invalid, cause the switch to not label a packet received at the switch according to the forwarding segment identifier set.