Patent ID: 9641353
Date: 2017-05-02
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A method comprising: establishing, by a layer-2 gateway device in a first site network, a virtual link with a layer-3 edge device in the first site network; establishing, by the layer-2 gateway device, an intermediate system-intermediate system (IS-IS) neighbor relation with the layer-3 edge device by using the virtual link; sending, by the layer-2 gateway device via the virtual link, information of a MAC address learned by the layer-2 gateway device to at least one IS-IS neighbor including the layer-3 edge device to enable the layer-3 edge device to learn the information of the MAC address and to provide the information of the MAC address for a second edge device in a second site network; and receiving, by the layer-2 gateway device, a packet from the layer-3 edge device via the virtual link, performing tunnel decapsulation on the packet, searching a local MAC forwarding table for an entry by using a virtual local area network (VLAN) ID and a destination MAC address in the decapsulated packet, and forwarding the packet within the first site network according to an entry found in the MAC forwarding table or broadcasting the packet in a local VLAN corresponding to the packet if no entry is found in the MAC forwarding table.