A device may receive a set of border gateway protocol labels via a set of corresponding border gateway protocol messages. A border gateway protocol label, of the set of border gateway protocol labels, may be associated with a label descriptor attribute. The label descriptor attribute being associated with providing information regarding a forwarding semantic associated with the border gateway protocol label. The device may select the border gateway protocol label for routing network traffic toward a network device associated with the border gateway protocol label based on the label descriptor attribute. The device may route the network traffic toward the network device based on the border gateway protocol label and after selecting the border gateway protocol label.