Patent ID: 8861547

Claim:
A method performed by a transmitting device, wherein the transmitting device is to transmit packets to a receiving device via a tunnel, and wherein the tunnel includes a first logical interface belonging to the transmitting device and a second logical interface belonging to the receiving device, the method comprising: setting, by the transmitting device, a bit of a message to a predetermined value that enables the first logical interface of the tunnel to operate in a bridge mode; transmitting the message from the transmitting device to the receiving device, wherein the message further includes a bidirectional tunnel identifier (ID) to identify the tunnel and an address of the transmitting device; receiving a response from the receiving device, wherein the response includes the bidirectional tunnel ID of the tunnel and the address of the transmitting device, thereby establishing the tunnel as a bidirectional tunnel between the transmitting device and the receiving device; encapsulating information in a tunnel packet; and transmitting the tunnel packet to the receiving tunnel device through the first logical interface of the tunnel.