Patent ID: 8175078

Claim:
A computer network comprising: first and second Ethernet access domain networks, each of Ethernet access domain networks including: a user-facing provider edge (u-PE) device; a stack group of network-facing provider edge (n-PE) devices coupled with the u-PE device, the n-PE devices running a bidding protocol to select one of the n-PE devices as a primary n-PE device for establishing only a single pseudowire connection path across a core network between the first and second Ethernet access domain networks per Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) service instance, the bidding protocol running on a processor associated with each n-PE device and being operable to cause the n-PE devices in each stack group to establish a new single pseudowire connection path across the core network between the first and second Ethernet access domain networks responsive to either a failure in the single pseudowire connection path or load-balancing considerations, wherein at no time following the running of the bidding protocol is there more than one pseudowire connection path, whether active or inactive, established across the core network between the first and second Ethernet access domain networks per VLAN service instance.