Patent ID: 8392509

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a message via a User-to-Network Interface (UNI) of a Metro Ethernet Network (MEN); extracting configuration information from the message, wherein the configuration information describes which of a plurality of Ethernet Virtual Connections (EVCs) are currently active EVCs an attribute at the UNI, the message is encapsulated in an Ethernet frame, and the Ethernet frame comprises a source address; storing the configuration information in a configuration information store at a customer edge device; controlling operations of the customer edge device to only send traffic on the MEN through the currently active EVCs identified by the configuration information to use the service, based on the configuration information store, wherein the receiving, the extracting, the storing, and the controlling are performed by the customer edge device that is coupled to the MEN at the UNI; and sending a message requesting an additional portion of a status report via the UNI in response to a report type field indicating that the status report spans multiple messages.