Patent ID: 7808997

Claim:
A method for forwarding data between a plurality of provider Ethernet networks, wherein a first provider Ethernet network is the first provider Ethernet network in a path through which a first data packet is transmitted from a first client network to a second client network, and a second provider Ethernet network is the last provider Ethernet network in the path through which the first data packet is transmitted, wherein the method comprises: encapsulating, by an ingress node of the first provider Ethernet network, the first data packet with an outer MAC header by using a network address of the second provider Ethernet network as a destination address in the outer MAC header, and then forwarding the first data packet to an egress node of the first provider Ethernet network; and replacing, by the egress node of the first provider Ethernet network, a source address of the outer MAC header of the first data packet with the network address of the first provider Ethernet network, and forwarding the first data packet to the second provider Ethernet network; and decapsulating, by the second provider Ethernet network, the first data packet and forwarding the decapsulated data packet to the second client network after the first data packet is forwarded to the second provider Ethernet network.