The present invention provides a method for traffic engineering and fast protection of individual data flows using capabilities supported by IPv6. By utilizing IPv6 extension headers and flow labels a specific network route based upon quality of service (QoS) requirements of a data flow can be selected by a source node. Once a route meeting the QoS requirements of the data flow is selected, a source node can insert the route in an initial packet header and force the flow along the corresponding network path. The source and intermediate nodes cache the route and the flow label selected for a data flow. For subsequent packets, the flow label is used by intermediate nodes to determine the next hop along the route. In the event of a failure, an intermediate node can force the insertion of a new route (along with the original flow label) in the next packet belonging to the failed data flow so that, as the packet is forwarded toward the destination, intermediate nodes on this new path can cache the route and the corresponding flow label. This new route is then used to continue forwarding the data flow to the destination node.