Patent ID: 7376828

Claim:
A method for using a service provider network that is provided by a service provider and that supports point-to-point channels between Ethernet interfaces that are coupled to the service provider network, the method comprising the steps of: requesting a service provider channel tag for one or more virtual local area networks (VLANs), wherein each of the one or more VLANs is associated with a customer defined VLAN tag and wherein the service provider channel tag is a service provider defined VLAN tag; receiving and storing, at a local customer Ethernet device that belongs to a customer different than the service provider and that has a first local Ethernet interface coupled to the service provider network, a mapping that associates the service provider channel tag with point-to-point communications from the first local Ethernet interface to a first remote Ethernet interface of a remote customer Ethernet device, which first remote Ethernet interface is coupled to the service provider network; associating the service provider channel tag with a set of one or more remote customer Ethernet interfaces accessed through the first remote Ethernet interface; associating a set of one or more encryption parameters with the service provider channel tag; encrypting payloads for a flow of one or more Ethernet packets directed to a particular Ethernet interface of the set of one or more remote customer Ethernet interfaces using the set of encryption parameters associated with the service provider channel tag to generate a set of one or more encrypted payloads; and inserting, at the local customer Ethernet device, the service provider channel tag in a VLAN field in an Ethernet header of each Ethernet packet in the flow of one or more Ethernet packets and an encrypted payload in the set of one or more encrypted payloads in a data field of each Ethernet packet in the flow of one or more Ethernet packets sent through the first local Ethernet interface to the service provider network.