Claims
- 1. A method of encapsulating data packets for use in a distributed computer network, the method comprising:
providing a data packet for transmission over the distributed computer network, the data packet selected from one of a customer data packet and an OAM data packet; and encapsulating the data packet with a medium access control outer packet.
- 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating the encapsulated data packet over the distributed computer network, without performing customer medium access control handling at a provider edge device.
- 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the medium access control outer packet includes a provider source address and a provider destination address.
- 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the medium access control outer packet includes a customer router source address and a customer router destination address.
- 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the data packet includes a type field, the type field comprising an Ethertype value.
- 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the outer packet includes a provider address that is defined on one of a customer port, multi-tenant unit, and label switching service basis.
- 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the data packet is a multicast packet that is communicated within several elements of a virtual private network domain.
- 8. A data packet handling method, the data packet handling method comprising the steps of:
receiving a data packet from a customer facing data port, the customer facing data port within a network node of a computer network; performing medium access control (MAC) learning for the received packet; determining whether the data port is a MAC-in-MAC port; performing a packet mapping to a destination address based on a service provider destination address; and encapsulating the received data packet with a header associated with the service provider.
- 9. The data packet handling method of claim 8, wherein the data packet is a unicast packet that is forwarded to a customer destination node.
- 10. The data packet handling method of claim 8, wherein the data packet is a multicast packet that is distributed to a plurality of nodes.
- 11. The data packet handling method of claim 8, wherein the data packet is an OAM packet.
- 12. The data packet handling method of claim 11, wherein the data packet is encapsulated with a MAC-in-MAC packet header, the encapsulating header including an outer header and an inner header, both the outer header and the inner header using a common set of provider source and destination addresses.
- 13. The data packet handling method of claim 12, wherein the outer header has an Ethertype field with a MAC-in-MAC value and the inner header has an Ethertype field with an OAM value.
- 14. A medium access control (MAC) encapsulated data packet for distribution over an Ethernet network, the medium access control encapsulated data packet comprising:
a provider MAC destination address field; a provider MAC source address field; an Ethertype field; and a customer data packet, the customer data packet encapsulated by a provider header that includes the provider MAC destination address field, the provider MAC source address field, and the Ethertype field.
- 15. The medium access control encapsulated data packet of claim 14, wherein the customer data packet includes a customer MAC destination address and a customer MAC source address.
- 16. The medium access control encapsulated data packet of claim 14, wherein the data packet has a bridge mode format.
- 17. An encapsulation method for use in a provider network comprising:
performing a first type of medium access control (MAC) packet encapsulation in a bridged mode at a first node within the provider network; and performing a second type of medium access control (MAC) packet encapsulation in a routed mode at a second node within the provider network.
- 18. The method of claim 17, wherein in the bridged mode, the first type of packet encapsulation uses a provider header for both customer packets and OAM packets, and wherein in the routed mode, the second type of packet encapsulation applies to OAM packets but not to customer packets.
- 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the OAM packets follow the same path through the provider network as for customer packets.
- 20. The method of claim 17, wherein the first node is an ingress point of an access node and wherein the first type of packet encapsulation uses a provider MAC header.
- 21. The method of claim 17, wherein the second node is an ingress point of an access node and wherein the second type of packet encapsulation uses a customer router MAC header for encapsulation of an OAM packet.
- 22. A method of processing a data packet communicated within a provider network, the method comprising:
receiving an encapsulated data packet at an egress point of an access node of the provider network; stripping off a provider header from the encapsulated data packet to produce a data packet selected from one of a customer packet and an OAM packet.
- 23. The method of claim 22, wherein the data packet is a customer packet and further comprising forwarding the customer packet to customer equipment coupled to the provider network.
- 24. A method of processing a data packet communicated within a provider network, the method comprising:
receiving an encapsulated data packet at an egress point of an access node of the provider network; stripping off an outer medium access control (MAC) header for an OAM packet in a routed mode; and performing processing on the recovered OAM packet.
Parent Case Info
[0001] This application relates to co-pending application Ser. No. 10/357,280 (Attorney Reference Number “1033-T00427”) filed Feb. 3, 2003, entitled ENHANCED H-VPLS SERVICE ARCHITECTURE USING CONTROL WORD, by Chenghong Hu, et. al.
[0002] This application relates to co-pending application serial no.______ (Attorney Reference Number “1033-T00419”) filed the same day as the present application, entitled OPERATIONS, ADMINISTRATION, AND MAINTENANCE DATA PACKET AND RELATED TESTING METHODS, by Chou Lan Pok, et al.