Using Q-in-Q-in-Q to implement ethernet service unit ring

An article of manufacture comprising:

• a machine-accessible storage medium including information that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:
• prepending a second virtual local area network (VLAN) tag to a packet prepended with a first VLAN tag when the packet is forwarded from a first port to a second port to result in an Q-in-Q packet, the second port having output connected to input of a third port;
• and
• prepending a third VLAN tag to the Q-in-Q packet when the Q-in-Q packet is forwarded from the third port to a fourth port to result in an Q-in-Q-in-Q packet.

An article of manufacture comprising:

• a machine-accessible storage medium including information that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:
• stripping a third virtual local area network (VLAN) tag from a Q-in-Q-in-Q packet prepended with first, second, and the third virtual VLAN tags to result in a Q-in-Q packet when the Q-in-Q-in-Q packet is forwarded from a first port to a second port, the second port having output connected to input of a third port;
• and
• stripping the second VLAN tag from the Q-in-Q packet when the Q-in-Q packet is forwarded from the third port to a fourth port.

A system comprising:

• an Ethernet routing switch (ERS) to route packets, the packets including a Q-in-Q-in-Q packet having prepended with first, second, and third virtual local area network (VLAN) tags;
• and
• a plurality of Ethernet service units (ESUs) coupled to the ERS to receive and transmit the packets, at least one of the plurality of the ESUs having a Q-in-Q-in-Q processing module, the Q-in-Q-in-Q processing module comprising:
• a prepending module to prepend the second and third VLAN tags to a packet prepended with the first VLAN tag to result in the Q-in-Q-in-Q packet to forward to the ERS, and
• a stripping module to strip the second and third VLAN tags from the Q-in-Q-in-Q packet received from the ERS.