A method of communicating connectionless and connection oriented signals using at least one common network element includes receiving connectionless and connection oriented signals from a plurality of source peripheral network elements and determining a signaling type associated with each signal, the signaling type comprising connectionless signaling or connection oriented signaling. The method further includes appending a transport label to each signal, each transport label comprising an indication of the signal's signaling type, and communicating the signals and appended transport labels toward destination peripheral network elements according to signaling procedures associated with each signal's signaling type.