Patent ID: 7463639
Filing Date: 2008-12-09
Classification: H04L,Y10S

Abstract:
1. For use in an edge device of a transport network adapted to provide a transparent LAN segment service, a method, implemented by one or more processors, for processing ingress data received by a port of the edge device, the method comprising: a) selecting a set of forwarding information based on the port on which the data is received, wherein the forwarding information includes at least one entry including a layer 2 address, a label associated with the layer 2 address, and an edge device identifier associated with the layer 2 address; b) selecting one of the at least one entry of the selected forwarding information based on a layer 2 address of the ingress data received; c) adding the label of the selected one of the at least one entry of the selected forwarding information to the ingress data received to generate modified data; and d) forwarding the modified data towards an edge device identified by the edge device identifier of the selected one of the at least one entry of the selected forwarding information, wherein the act of selecting one of the at least one entry of the selected forwarding information is performed by attempting to match the layer 2 address of the ingress data received with the layer 2 address of each of the at least one entry, and wherein if the layer 2 address of the ingress data received does not match the layer 2 address of any of the at least one entry, then the selected entry does not include a layer 2 address, but does include at least one set of associated information, each of the at least one set of associated information including a label and an associated edge device identifier.