What does "Forwarding Equivalence Class (FEC)" mean?
A Forwarding Equivalence Class (FEC) is a class of packets that should be forwarded in the same manner (i.e. over the same path). A FEC is not a packet, nor is it a label. A FEC is a logical entity created by the router to represent a class (category) of packets. When a packet arrives at the ingress router of an MPLS domain, the router parses the packet's headers, and checks to see if the packet matches a known FEC (class). Once the matching FEC is determined, the path and outgoing label assigned to that FEC are used to forward the packet. FECs are typically created based on the IP destinations known to the router, so for each different destination a router might create a different FEC, or if a router is doing aggregation, it might represent multiple destinations with a single FEC (for example, if those destinations are reachable through the same immediate next hop anyway). The MPLS framework, however, allows for the creation of FECs using advanced criteria like source and destination address pairs, destination address and TOS, etc.
