Patent ID: 7733869

Claim:
A method of emulating Virtual Provide Local Area Network Service (VPLS) in an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) network, comprising: configuring, at a plurality of provider edge devices (PEs) arranged in a Private Network-Network Interface (PNNI) hierarchy, a VPLS having a VPLS Identifier (ID); at each PE, generating a PNNI Topology State Element (PTSE) including a VPLS Information Group (IG), the VPLS IG indicating the VPLS ID and an ATM address associated with the VPLS; flooding each VPLS IG throughout the PNNI hierarchy to exchange information between the PEs; establishing a mesh of virtual circuits in the ATM network to emulate VPLS by attaching virtual circuits to pairs of PEs, each of the pairs of PEs in the mesh comprising a first PE and a second PE, wherein establishing each virtual circuit between the first PE and the second PE comprises: selecting the first PE and the second PE for the virtual circuit when the first PE determines that the second PE supports the VPLS ID; determining whether the first PE or the second PE should initiate the virtual circuit; automatically establishing the virtual circuit between the first PE and the second PE using the respective ATM address of each PE as endpoints of the virtual circuit, wherein the virtual circuit has a traffic characteristic equal to a minimum traffic characteristic of the first PE and the second PE.