Patent ID: 8045570
Filing Date: 2011-10-25
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of operating a Provider Link State Bridging (PLSB) network to provide an instance of a virtual private Ethernet switching service between a private LAN attached to a first node of the PLSB network and at least one roaming device attached to a respective second node of the PLSB network, the PLSB network comprising a control plane and a data plane, data packets in the PLSB network carrying I-SID identifiers to differentiate traffic of different network users, the method comprising: providing a virtual bridging function at the first node; allocating a first I-SID identifier to traffic of the virtual private Ethernet switching service instance in the PLSB network; establishing a PLSB path labeled by the first I-SID between the virtual bridging function and each respective second node by: bridging traffic at the virtual bridging function between the private LAN and the PLSB path to each second node.