Patent Document ID: 8259725
Application ID: 12693892
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for removing Media Access Control (MAC) addresses, comprising: sending, by a first User-facing Provider Edge (UPE), a MAC Address Withdraw message, when a handover happens on an access network; receiving, by a network provider edge (NPE), the MAC Address Withdraw message; and removing, by the NPE, a Backbone Media Access Control (B-MAC) address table corresponding to a Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) network and forwarding the MAC Address Withdraw message if the message carries no specific identifier, or directly forwarding the MAC Address Withdraw message if the message carries a specific identifier, wherein the UPE is configured to add a substitute address for a B-MAC address to a B-MAC address entry corresponding to a user identifier when the MAC Address Withdraw message carries the user identifier and the substitute address for the B-MAC address, wherein the UPE is further configured to receive the message forwarded by the NPE router; remove the B-MAC address table corresponding to the VPLS network, if the message received carries no specific identifier; remove a B-MAC address entry corresponding to the user identifier in the C-MAC address table, if the message received carries a user identifier; remove a group of B-MAC address entries corresponding to the interface identifier in the C-MAC address table, if the message received carries an interface identifier; and remove B-MAC address entries corresponding to the general identifier in the C-MAC address table, if the message received by the message receiving module carries a general identifier.