Patent ID: 8526443

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by a control node in a ring network, a plurality of data units transmitted by a plurality of transport nodes on the ring network, each data unit comprising traffic profile information of a virtual local area network (VLAN) that includes at least one of an expected bandwidth of the VLAN, a traffic class of the VLAN, a forwarding behavior of the VLAN, and a preferred ring domain of the VLAN; automatically assigning, by the control node, the VLAN to one of a plurality of domains established on the ring network based on the traffic profile information of each data unit, wherein each domain of the plurality of domains comprises a loop-free path of the ring network that the plurality of data units takes in traveling from a first transport node of the plurality of transport nodes to a second transport node of the plurality of transport nodes; allowing, by the control node, network traffic associated with the VLAN to travel across the one of the plurality of domains; and blocking, by the control node, network traffic not associated with the VLAN from traveling across the one of the plurality of domains, wherein the control node is a single node in the ring network configured to both allow network traffic associated with the VLAN to travel across the one of the plurality of domains and also block network traffic not associated with the VLAN from traveling across the one of the plurality of domains.