Scalable VLAN grouping in a provider metro ethernet

摘要

A method (20) of grouping VLANs in network system (10). The network system comprises a plurality of edge nodes (EN x ) and a plurality of core nodes (CN x ). The network system also comprises a plurality of VLANs with selected VLANs communicating through selected edge nodes in the plurality of edge nodes, and where different VLANs in the plurality of VLANs are associated with a plurality of different users sharing resources on the network system. The method comprises a step (30) of proposing a set of users from the plurality of different users. The proposed set comprises users associated with VLANs that share respective number of edge nodes in the plurality of edge nodes such that the shared number is less than a total number of all edge nodes to which each different users in the set is connected, with other aspects then taken with respect to the proposed set. Such propsed users' set is given the same VLAN tag. in this way the number of VLAN identifiers can be reduced.