MPLS PDFs: A Technical Collection

This collection of MPLS pdf papers cover a wide range of topics. From the basic functions and uses of MPLS to highly technical analysis of MPLS within the open Internet, these MPLS pdfs come from a variety of industry and academic sources.
Demystifying MPLS by Claudio Jeker
This MPLS pdf was the basis of a paper at EuroBSDcon 2011 in The Netherlands, with author Claudio Jeker explaining how MPLS functions to the OpenBSD (Berkeley Software Distributions) community. According to Jeker’s bio, he is one of the main developers of the MPLS framework within OpenBSD.
This is a fairly technical view of MPLS, but solidly explains the network evolution that led to the advent of MPLS, and how MPLS differs from other types of routing. This MPLS pdf gives a very thorough view of how MPLS functions, and explores various aspects from VPNs and Provider Edge-Customer Edge interactions that a non-engineer can understand, while including coding details of configuration that network experts will be able to appreciate.
MPLS for Dummies, by Richard A.Steenbergen
An MPLS tutorial PDF from NANOG (North American Network Operators’ Group, which focuses on backbone and enterprise networking technologies) that gives a very thorough explanation of what MPLS is, how it works, and how it can improve network operations. This starts off with basic concepts and works up to more complicated facets of MPLS. Steenbergen includes some of the downsides of MPLS toward the end of the presentation.
Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) Overview and Applicability by Arup Acharya
This MPLS pdf from an IBM research group assumes basic knowledge of networking. Acharya outlines half a dozen benefits of MPLS, explains the use and format of MPLS labels, and gives brief summaries of how MPLS relates to VPNs and QoS. Because of the article’s age (dated 2000), it is not current in its estimations of present and future uses of MPLS, but the information on how MPLS works is still a solid overview; and it provides an interesting historical marker on how the role of MPLS was predicted to play out within networks.
Use of MPLS technology in Mobile Backhaul Networks from IP/MPLS Forum
An excellent white paper from the IP/MPLS Forum, which united with the industry group Broadband Forum in 2008. This paper dates from that time and gives a very thorough view of the hows and whys of MPLS working within mobile networks.
On the Prevalence and Characteristics of MPLS Deployments in the Open Internet by Joel Sommers, Brian Eriksson and Paul Barford
This MPLS pdf comes from three academic authors. It was published in Proceedings of the ACM Internet Measurement Conference from 2011.
The paper examines the prevalence and characteristics of MPLS deployments in the open Internet. The introduction speaks to the development of MPLS and some of its benefits, and the paper goes on to examine MPLS traffic in light of use trends and the affect of MPLS tunnels on network traffic behavior and measurement. As the authors put it: “We seek to answer questions such as: How many networks use MPLS? Has the use of MPLS grown over time? How likely is it that my traffic will encounter an MPLS tunnel?”
While highly technical, particularly in regards to describing their data-gathering methods, this MPLS pdf also contains interesting tidbits on the extent of MPLS use (section 3.2) and trends over time.