Patent ID: 8848578

Claim:
A network element comprising: a first customer edge port (CEP) communicatively coupled to a customer network, a first flood domain, and a second flood domain, the first flood domain and the second flood domain each comprising one or more provider network ports associated with a provider network, the first CEP configured to peer spanning tree protocol (STP) data units across the provider network and further configured to: receive a first data unit; and transmit the first data unit to a first STP processing instance associated with the first CEP; the first STP processing instance configured to: determine whether the first data unit is associated with the first flood domain or the second flood domain; and forward the first data unit to the determined flood domain; a second CEP communicatively coupled to the customer network and the first flood domain, the second CEP configured to tunnel STP data units across the provider network and further configured to: receive a second data unit; and forward the second data unit to the first flood domain.