In general, techniques are described for aggregating, within a network device, internal forwarding routes for multiple control protocols and allocating next hops for the routes among individual service units of a decentralized control plane for the network device. The techniques may also include aggregating internal forwarding routes for data protocols and allocating next hops for the routes among individual forwarding units of a decentralized data plane for the network device. In one example, a mobile gateway includes a plurality of subscriber management service units that present a uniform interface to nodes within a mobile service provider network. An allocation manager apportions a control protocol session identifier namespace into a plurality of contiguous, non-overlapping protocol session identifier ranges and allocates the ranges among the service units. The service units execute the control protocol by utilizing respective allocated ranges, which the aggregate internal forwarding routes use to identify the associated service units.