Patent ID: 8751683

Claim:
A method for operating a network that utilizes provider backbone bridging (PBB) according to IEEE 802.1 ah to create a PBB domain, wherein the network includes a first customer edge (CE) device connected to first and second PBB provider edge (PE) devices such that the first CE device is dual-homed to the first and second PBB PE devices and a second CE device connected to a third PBB PE device, the method comprising: creating a backup link between the first and second PBB PE devices, the backup link identifying customer MAC addresses (CMACs) for which unicast Ethernet traffic can be redirected from the first PBB PE device to the second PBB PE device; detecting a service failure that requires a path change for customer Ethernet traffic to reach the first CE device from the second CE device; selectively redirecting only unicast Ethernet traffic, which is destined to the first CE device, from the first PBB PE device to the second PBB PE device via the backup link in response to the detected service failure; preventing multicast Ethernet traffic and broadcast Ethernet traffic from being redirected from the first PBB device to the second PBB PE device; and preventing the second PBB PE device from performing MAC learning on the redirected unicast Ethernet traffic.