This read-create integer reports the number of operational paths for this LSP, including both the currently active path and any standby paths that are also currently up and ready, as distinct from csMplsLspConfiguredPaths which counts all defined paths regardless of current state. It gives an administrator a real-time view of how much of the engineered redundancy is actually available right now. Seeing csMplsLspOperationalPaths drop below csMplsLspConfiguredPaths would alert an operator that one or more configured backup paths are currently down, reducing the tunnel's actual failover protection.