Patent ID: 8880727

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving at a layer three (L3) router, a layer two (L2) communication from an L2 device, wherein the L2 communication includes a Media Access Control (MAC) address for an L2 end-point device in an L2 network; by the L3 router, storing, to L2 state data, the MAC address for the L2 end-point device learned from the received L2 communication; forwarding L2 communications for the L2 end-point device using the MAC address from the stored L2 state data; and in response to receiving the L2 communication, transmitting a routing communication from the L3 router to a peer router, wherein the routing communication is sent in accordance with a routing protocol and specifies the MAC address for the L2 end-point device for the peer router to update local routing information of the peer router for forwarding L2 communications at the peer router using the MAC address to select a label-switched path (LSP) based on the local routing information on which to forward L2 communications through one or more intermediate networks between the L3 router and the peer router.