A router residing in a network comprises at least one ingress port, at least one egress port, and a processor programmed to compare at least two label switch paths, determine potential conflicts between the at least two label switch paths based on the ingress ports and egress ports utilized by the label switch paths, and determine a selected identifier to be assigned relative to each label switch path. The processor is configured to assign a common identifier if no conflict exists. A storage medium is operatively coupled to the processor for storing the selected identifiers related to the label switch paths. The processor may be configured to determine that a conflict exists between two label switch paths if they utilize the same ingress port on the router and different egress ports on the router.