Patent ID: 8416789

Claim:
A packet tunnel network, comprising: three or more Ethernet provider networks each including a Service VLAN (S-VLAN), the S-VLANs being associated with a same packet tunnel service instance; three or more Edge Bridges (EBs), each connected to a different one of the Ethernet provider networks and each configured to receive packets associated with the same packet tunnel service instance from its connected Ethernet provider network and to select, on a per-packet basis, a destination EB for the received packets from among the other EBs; and a set of three or more packet tunnels defined by Ethernet packet tunnel identifiers and fully connecting the EBs, each packet tunnel comprises a single tunnel having only two endpoints at two of the three or more EBs connecting only a pair of the three or more Ethernet provider networks, wherein each EB is configured to forward each packet of the packet tunnel service instance received by the EB from its connected Ethernet provider network to its selected destination EB via the packet tunnel of the set connecting the EB to the selected destination EB and wherein each packet tunnel is configured to relay the packets of the packet tunnel service instance only between the two endpoints of the packet tunnel; wherein each of the three or more EBs is configured to prevent forwarding packets received from one of the set of three or more packet tunnels to any other of the set of three or more packet tunnels to prevent broadcast storms without relying on spanning tree protocols.