350-501 MPLS and Segment Routing Practice Question
Which TWO are characteristics of Segment Routing (SR-MPLS)? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the misconception that SR-MPLS requires a centralized controller for traffic engineering, but the distributed IGP-based control plane is fully capable of steering traffic using segment lists without any controller.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
It relies on source routing
Segment Routing (SR-MPLS) is a source routing paradigm where the ingress node encodes a list of segment identifiers (SIDs) into the packet header, specifying the path the packet must take through the network. This eliminates the need for per-hop signaling protocols like LDP or RSVP-TE, as each intermediate node simply forwards based on the top SID.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
It relies on source routing
Why this is correct
SR performs source routing by encoding the path as a segment list.
- ✗
It requires a centralized controller for traffic engineering
Why it's wrong here
SR can perform traffic engineering without a controller using explicit segment lists.
- ✗
It forwards packets based on destination IP address at each hop
Why it's wrong here
SR forwards based on the top segment (label), not IP address.
- ✗
It requires MPLS LDP for label distribution
Why it's wrong here
SR uses IGP extensions to distribute prefix-SIDs and adjacency-SIDs; LDP is not needed.
- ✓
It supports both MPLS and IPv6 data planes
Why this is correct
SR can be applied to MPLS (SR-MPLS) or IPv6 (SRv6) data planes.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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