Method for transmitting label switching control information using the open shortest path first opaque link state advertisement option protocol

Contained herein is material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction of the patent disclosure by any person as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all rights to the copyright whatsoever. A method for distributing label binding information, e.g., a binding between a label and a network layer route, in a label switching environment using the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) Opaque Link State Advertisement (LSA) option protocol. The binding information is included in an application specific field following the LSA header. LS type 9 LSA packets are used to limit the flooding scope to the local network segments attached to the label switch. Address prefix information, i.e., network address and subnet mask, are transmitted and associated with a label in the application specific field of the Opaque LSA packet. The Opaque LSA packets are exchanged between a group of interconnected Opaque LSA capable label switches so that the label switches can maintain their label forwarding tables and routing tables as necessary to forward data packets according to a label swapping forwarding paradigm.