This object contains an appropriate value to be used for mplsTunnelHopListIndex when creating entries in the mplsTunnelHopTable. If the number of unassigned entries is exhausted, a retrival operation will return a value of 0. This object may also return a value of 0 when the LSR is unable to accept conceptual row creation, for example, if the mplsTunnelHopTable is implemented as read-only. To obtain the value of mplsTunnelHopListIndex for a new entry in the mplsTunnelHopTable, the manager issues a management protocol retrieval operation to obtain the current value of mplsTunnelHopIndex. After each retrieval operation, the agent should modify the value to reflect the next unassigned index. After a manager retrieves a value the agent will determine through its local policy when this index value will be made available for reuse.