FACT: MPLS is a shared service | Myth: MPLS is private
MPLS is a shared network service - there is nothing private about it
We use a private network is often stated as the reason for not protecting data as it travels over 3rd party networks.
But is MPLS really private?
MPLS is technically a VPN or a Virtual Private Network, meaning its not actually private - it only mimics privacy by logically separating data with labels.
More importantly - even if MPLS were private, is privacy the equivalent of security?
The answer is no.
It is important to understand that a service provider has the technical possibility to sniff VPN data, and VPN users can either choose to trust the service providers not to use their data inappropriately, or they can encrypt the traffic over the MPLS core.
Customer Edge (CE) routers are assigned to individual customers, but Provider Edge (PE) and Provider backbone (P) routers are shared. In other words, only the router in your office is private - the very next router your traffic hits (and all the routers after it) are shared by multiple users.
Each router in an MPLS network performs label swapping. The new label is used by the next router for forwarding purposes. At any given moment traffic from competitors and other provider networks flows across a common infrastructure.
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