Abstract: Various exemplary embodiments are a method and of discovering medium access control (MAC) addresses in a network and a related access node including one or more of the following: receiving, at an access node, a diagnostic message from an operator, the diagnostic message comprising physical port information and indicating that at least a portion of a MAC address of a destination bridge port is unknown to the operator; forwarding the diagnostic message to a respective bridge port of the access node; determining whether the physical port information specified in the diagnostic message corresponds to a physical port of the respective bridge port; and sending a reply message to the operator specifying a MAC address of the respective bridge port.

Abstract: Various exemplary embodiments are a method and of discovering medium access control (MAC) addresses in a network and a related access node including one or more of the following: receiving, at an access node, a diagnostic message from an operator, the diagnostic message comprising physical port information and indicating that at least a portion of a MAC address of a destination bridge port is unknown to the operator; forwarding the diagnostic message to a respective bridge port of the access node; determining whether the physical port information specified in the diagnostic message corresponds to a physical port of the respective bridge port; and sending a reply message to the operator specifying a MAC address of the respective bridge port.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for adaptive service interworking include processing that begins by obtaining connection information of a receiving end-point network switch in response to receiving a setup message from a sending party. The setup message identifies a receiving party, which is operably coupled to the receiving end-point switch. Such connection information may be obtained by sending an enhanced traffic descriptor appended to the setup message and receiving an enhanced traffic descriptor that was appended to a connection message from the receiving end-point switch. The connection information is then interpreted to determine whether the receiving end-point switch is capable of supporting a transparent link. If the end-point network switch is capable of supporting the transparent link, the transparent link is established and utilized to transport data between the sending and receiving parties.