Patent ID: 8504727

Claim:
A network including: a plurality of Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) networks interconnected by an intervening Ethernet network, the intervening Ethernet network: implementing an IEEE 802.1 Ethernet protocol; including a plurality of Ethernet network elements interconnected between the MPLS networks; implementing a control plane separate from a control plane of the MPLS networks, the control plane of the intervening Ethernet network being used by the plurality of Ethernet network elements to determine which links between Ethernet network elements should be used to forward traffic on the intervening Ethernet network to enable traffic from one of the MPLS networks to be forwarded to another of the MPLS networks; providing a plurality of paths established using the control plane of the intervening Ethernet network to interconnect pairs of MPLS networks; and Ethernet encapsulated Label Switched Path (LSP) frames received from one of the MPLS networks at an ingress to the intervening Ethernet network being mapped onto the paths at the ingress to the intervening Ethernet network according to classification identifiers associated with the Ethernet encapsulated LSP frames, each of the plurality of MPLS networks coupled to the intervening Ethernet network having MPLS access switches establishing a pseudo-wire service between the MPLS access switches across the intervening Ethernet network, such that native service frames of an MPLS network are carried transparently over the pseudo-wire service.