Patent ID: 7633937

Claim:
A method for receiving frames at a gateway device, comprising: receiving a frame at a metro ethernet gateway coupled to a metro ethernet network and an external network, the frame having an outer tag value identifying a customer site in a metro ethernet network, an inner tag value in an inner tag field, an ethernet packet header, and an ethernet packet payload, wherein a first value for the inner tag field is mapped to a frame relay service, a second value for the inner tag field is mapped to an Ethernet service, and a plurality of values for the inner tag field are mapped to Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) virtual circuits determining that the inner tag value identifies a service provisioned for the customer site; and replacing the outer tag and the inner tag with one or more identifiers for transmission onto the external network; wherein determining that the inner tag identifies a service provisioned for the customer comprises determining if the inner tag has a reserved value.