Abstract: Creating an Ethernet network, within an existing MPLS network, for one or more specified traffic services by selecting in the MPLS network one or more bidirectional non-disjoint LSPs between dual-enabled nodes, presenting these LSPs as Ethernet-enabled links, deploying over them an Ethernet protocol and forwarding there-along dedicated Ethernet over MPLS packets according to Ethernet forwarding rules regardless any MPLS labels except for a predetermined dedicated LSP label.

Abstract: Creating an Ethernet network, within an existing MPLS network, for one or more specified traffic services by selecting in the MPLS network one or more bidirectional non-disjoint LSPs between dual-enabled nodes, presenting these LSPs as Ethernet-enabled links, deploying over them an Ethernet protocol and forwarding there-along dedicated Ethernet over MPLS packets according to Ethernet forwarding rules regardless any MPLS labels except for a predetermined dedicated LSP label.

Abstract: A method for recovery of a traffic flow being conducted via a communication line in a multi-layer communication network, the traffic flow comprising a Guaranteed traffic portion GT and a Best Effort traffic portion BET assigned to respective bandwidth resources of the line. The communication network comprising at least two network layers provided with respective traffic recovery mechanisms which utilize bandwidth resources such as time slots, wavelengths, physical links, logical links. The traffic flow may comprise traffic component(s) at different network layers, and the bandwidth resources of the traffic component(s) may be divided into GT and BET portions. The method comprises forming a shared pool of recovery resources, for all the layers in the line, from the bandwidth resources assigned to BET on all the layers. The method further comprises utilizing the shared pool of recovery resources for recovery of any of the traffic components of the traffic flow.