Patent ID: 7948992

Claim:
A method for communicating information from a source to a destination, the source served by a first network and the destination served by a second network, comprising: initiating transmission of a reformatted frame to the destination via the first network using a first destination address, wherein the reformatted frame is formed at an interworking facility, is a predetermined switch, is an asynchronous transfer mode adaptation layer 5 frame that is broken down into a sequence of asynchronous transfer mode cells by the interworking facility, is compatible with the first network and includes a payload obtained from an Ethernet-formatted frame from a source served by the second network; wherein the Ethernet-formatted frame includes a virtual local area network tag that specifies a second destination address for the destination; mapping the first destination address from the second destination address at the interworking facility from an Ethernet destination Media Access Control (MAC) media access control address comprised by the Ethernet formatted frame; encoding the Ethernet destination media access control address for the source by the interworking facility in an address resolution protocol reply from the destination, and wherein the Ethernet destination media access control address is chosen from a locally available pool of Addresses by the interworking facility; wherein the address resolution protocol reply is responsive to an address resolution protocol polling request broadcast from an Ethernet-based source wherein the address resolution protocol polling request includes an identification tag matched to an address for the destination by the interworking facility; wherein the destination is permanent virtual circuit for asynchronous transfer mode destination; and mapping the virtual local area network tag to the asynchronous transport mode permanent virtual circuit.