Patent ID: 7974202

Claim:
A method for assigning and utilizing an Ethernet physical data port in an Ethernet Link Aggregation Group (LAG) located downstream from a preceding node in a Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) network tunnel employing Resource Reservation Protocol Traffic Engineering (RSVP-TE) tunnel provisioning, the method comprising: sending downstream, by the preceding node, an RSVP-TE PATH message augmented with a LABEL_REQUEST object; receiving, by a first MPLS/LAG switch, said RSVP-TE PATH message and said LABEL_REQUEST object; designating a plurality of physical data ports in the LAG as a single logical port; selecting, by said first MPLS/LAG switch from said plurality of physical data ports in said single logical port, a single physical tunnel port which meets a bandwidth requirement of the network tunnel, and wherein said single physical tunnel port has a port serial number; assigning said single physical tunnel port to the network tunnel; preparing, by said first MPLS/LAG switch, a data packet label by which said single physical tunnel port may be identified, wherein said preparing includes dedicating a sub-set of bits of said data packet label to encode said port serial number of said single physical tunnel port; sending, by said first MPLS/LAG switch, said data packet label to the preceding node; attaching said data packet label to a data packet sent by the preceding node, which is associated with the network tunnel; receiving said data packet having said data packet label at said first MPLS/LAG switch, and responsively to said data packet label, switching said data packet to said single physical tunnel port, and sending said data packet to a second MPLS/LAG switch via said single physical tunnel port.