Juniper Networks Inc. Juniper Networks Inc. Juniper Networks Inc. Cisco Systems Cisco Systems MPLS ping and traceroute mechanism as described in RFC 8029 and related extensions for SR as defined in RFC 8287 is very useful to precisely validate the control plane and data plane synchronization. There is a possibility that all intermediate or transit nodes may not have been upgraded to support these validation procedures. A simple mpls ping and traceroute mechanism comprises of ability to traverse any path without having to validate the control plane state. RFC 8029 supports this mechanism with Nil FEC. The procedures described in RFC 8029 are mostly applicable when the Nil FEC is used as intermediate FEC in the label stack. When all labels in label stack are represented using single Nil FEC, it poses some challenges. This document introduces new TLV as additional extension to exisiting Nil FEC and describes mpls ping and traceroute procedures using Nil FEC with this additional extensions to overcome these challenges.