Multi Protocol Label Switching is used to provide high-performance, multi-service switching in packet data networks. It enables efficient aggregation of multi-service traffic (including native IP, ATM and Frame Relay traffic) over an IP network and provides traffic engineering capabilities to efficiently and appropriately forward traffic according to the traffic needs. IP/MPLS is taking over from ATM as the preferred way to handle multi-service requirements in data networks, including real-time services such as telephony.