Tunnel provisioning with link aggregation

A method for use by an Ethernet switch device for switching Ethernet frames in a stand-alone unit, the Ethernet switch device comprises N multiple physical ports cooperating as an Ethernet Link Aggregation Group (LAG), each port operative for receiving and transmitting Ethernet frames, the method comprising:

• assigning, in the Ethernet switch, a distinct number to each port of the multiple physical ports,
• receiving, by a first Ethernet port of the Ethernet device, multiple Ethernet frames where each of the frames comprises a source address field, a destination address field, and a value carried in a first field other than the source or destination address fields;
• applying a hash function that comprises a Modulo N function and that maps a respective assigned port number to each of the respective values in the first field of the multiple frames;
• selecting, by the Ethernet device, for each frame of the multiple frames, a port from the multiple physical ports that is assigned a result of the hash function of the respective frame;
• and
• sending, by the Ethernet device, each of the received multiple frames via the respective selected port,
• wherein the Ethernet switch further comprises a Label-Switching Router (LSR) according to Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) protocol, and wherein the first field further comprises an MPLS label field, and
• wherein the LAG is according to, based on, or compatible with, Clause 43 of IEEE Standard 802.3ad, 2002 Edition.