Abstract: A system (10) for providing Internet Protocol (IP) tunneling over an Open System Interconnect (OSI) network system having a plurality of network elements includes a topology module (110) executable on a first network element (20) and operable to determine a first network element topology of network elements eligible for IP tunneling for the first network element (20), a mapping module (120) executable on the first network element (20) and operable to map the network elements eligible for IP tunneling to corresponding IP addresses, and an encapsulation/decapsulation module (130) executable on the first network element (20) and operable to encapsulate an IP datagram into an OSI frame and decapsulate the IP datagram from an OSI frame.