Patent ID: 8553583

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by a network device, a first Ethernet frame from a first leaf user-to-network (UNI) interface in a tree, wherein the tree includes the first leaf UNI, a second leaf UNI, and a root UNI, wherein the first Ethernet frame includes a virtual local area network (VLAN) tag, and wherein the VLAN tag includes VLAN fields that exclude a VLAN identifier (ID) field; when the VLAN fields include a first value, selecting a first network path that is included in the tree, and sending the first Ethernet frame over the first network path, from the network device through the root UNI to the second leaf UNI; when the VLAN fields include a second value, selecting a second network path that is not included the tree, and sending the first Ethernet frame over the second network path, from the network device to the second leaf UNI without passing through the root UNI; and when the VLAN fields do not include the first value and the second value, dropping the first Ethernet frame.