Patent ID: 8537839

Claim:
A port unit, comprising: a label map memory to hold multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) labels; a stream data memory that holds stream forming data defining a plurality of packet streams for transmission over a network under test, the stream forming data for at least one packet stream including one or more pointers to respective locations within the label map memory; a traffic generator for generating the plurality of packet streams in accordance with the respective stream forming data, the traffic generator configured to retrieve one or more MPLS labels from the label map memory in accordance with the one or more pointers, and incorporate the one or more retrieved MPLS labels into the at least one packet stream; a traffic receiver for receiving packets from the network under test; and a port processor coupled to the traffic generator and the traffic receiver, the port processor comprising a first memory that stores label tracking data including data to uniquely identify each of a plurality of label conditions sets and data associating each label condition set with one or more respective memory locations within the label map memory, wherein, when a control packet associating an MPLS label with a specific label condition set is received via the traffic receiver, the port processor performs actions including: extracting the specific label condition set and the associated MPLS label from the received control packet; retrieving, from the stored label tracking data, addresses for one or more label map memory locations associated with the specific label condition set; and storing the MPLS label in label map memory locations defined by the one or more retrieved addresses.