Patent ID: 8804713

Claim:
A method for forwarding data in a layer-2 network, wherein the layer-2 network comprises a plurality of nodes in a management domain, the method comprising: receiving, by a first edge node of the plurality of nodes, a first data packet from a first customer equipment (CE) outside the management domain, wherein the first data packet comprises a media access control (MAC) address of the first CE as a source MAC address of the first data packet and a MAC address of a second CE outside the management domain as a destination MAC address of the first data packet; generating, by the first edge node, a second data packet comprising a virtual MAC address of the first edge node as a source MAC address of the second data packet and at least part of the first data packet, wherein the at least part of the first data packet comprises the MAC address of the first CE and the MAC address of the second CE; and forwarding, by the first edge node, the second data packet to a parent node of the first edge node in order that the parent node forwards the second data packet without inserting any additional source virtual MAC address into the second packet; wherein the parent node is able to use the virtual MAC address of the first edge node when the parent node forwards the second data packet and the virtual MAC address of the first edge node belongs to a virtual MAC address space indicated by a virtual MAC address of the parent node.