This object contains the next appropriate value to be used for mplsTunnelIndex when creating entries in mplsTunnelTable. 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 mplsTunnelTable is implemented as read-only. To obtain the value of mplsTunnelIndex for a new entry, the manager must first issue a management protocol retrieval operation to obtain the current value of this object. The agent should modify the value to reflect the next unassigned index after each retrieval operation. After a manager retrieves a value the agent will determine through its local policy when this index value will be made available for reuse.