Patent ID: 8493984

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a request from a first interface to establish a session with at least a second interface in a communication network, the request being transmitted to an application layer signaling device via an application layer signaling protocol dialog, wherein the application layer signaling protocol dialog is configured to facilitate communication between the first interface and the application layer signaling device; and communicating parameters for establishing a session tunnel in a label switching network from the application layer signaling device to a first edge router of the label switching network via the application layer signaling protocol dialog, wherein the parameters of the session tunnel are determined based on the request received by the application layer signaling device from the first interface, and wherein the first edge router is operable to dynamically establish the session tunnel between the first edge router and at least a second edge router of the label switching network based on the communicated parameters, the session tunnel enabling communication between the first and second interfaces via the first and second edge routers, wherein the first and second edge routers are label edge routers and wherein the session tunnel comprises a multiprotocol label switching tunnel and only exists between the first and second edge routers.