This is set by the operator to indicate the protocol responsible for establishing this VC: manual means no maintenance protocol is used and requires configuring VC tables including labels by hand, while maintenanceProtocol means standard signaling, such as LDP for an MPLS PSN, is used instead. This tells the router and any admin inspecting the configuration whether the pseudowire's labels were manually hard-coded versus dynamically negotiated, a distinction with real operational consequences since a manual VC requires the admin to keep both PEs' static label configuration perfectly synchronized by hand. For example, a VC marked manual that stops passing traffic after one PE's local label was changed without the corresponding change on the remote PE illustrates exactly the synchronization burden that maintenanceProtocol signaling exists to eliminate.