Patent ID: 7672314

Claim:
An intermediate node in a data network, wherein the data network comprises a core network and a plurality of domain networks and a plurality of virtual local area networks (VLANs), each VLAN associated with a unique conventional VLAN identifier (VID) from a limited VLAN tag space, the limited VLAN tag space apportioned between the core network and the plurality of domain networks, the intermediate node comprising: a line card to acquire a first domain network data packet containing a first domain VLAN (DVLAN) tag associated with a VLAN contained in the domain network and a first core network data packet containing a first translation VLAN (TVLAN) tag and a first pseudo-LAN (P-LAN) tag; and a tunnel engine configured to: a) in response to acquiring the first domain network data packet, generate a second core network data packet from information contained in the first domain network data packet, and tag a second core network data packet with a second TVLAN tag and second P-LAN tag combination associated with the first DVLAN tag; and b) in response to acquiring the first core network packet, generate a second domain network data packet, compare the first TVLAN tag and first P-LAN tag combination contained in the first core network packet with TVLAN tags and P-LAN tags contained in entries of a translation data structure to determine if an entry contains a TVLAN tag and P-LAN tag that match the first TVLAN tag and first P-LAN tag combination, of the first core network data packet, and if so, place a second DVLAN tag contained in the matching entry, in the second domain network data packet.