The label on the top of the MPLS label stack is swapped at an intermediate node. This is because the top label is the one that is visible to the node and determines the forwarding decision. The node looks up the top label in its label forwarding table and swaps it with a new label that corresponds to the next hop or destination. The node then forwards the packet to the next node, which repeats the same process. The bottom label is only used to indicate the end of the label stack and is not swapped.Reference: [Nokia GMPLS-controlled Optical Networks Course | Nokia], [MPLS Label Stack - Nokia]