Process for determining a target ATM address

A method for determining a destination ATM address as reply to an address resolution inquiry output by a source LAN emulation client of a first ELAN when a destination MAC address to be resolved is allocated to at least one LAN emulation client of a second ELAN, the first ELAN and the second ELAN being connected to a higher-ranking network, comprising the steps of:

• encapsulating a address resolution request in the first ELAN as ELAN frame in a frame format of the CLS wide-area network with an E-164 address allocated to the destination MAC address in the frame header part;
• handing over the encapsulated address resolution request to the CLS wide-area network and transmitting the encapsulated address resolution request to the second ELAN;
• de-encapsulating the encapsulated address resolution request and handover to an LAN emulation server responsible for the address type of the second ELAN in the ELAN frame format;
• resolving the destination MAC address into an appertaining ATM address by the LAN emulation server of the second ELAN and outputting an address resolution response;
• encapsulating the address resolution response into the frame format of the CLS wide-area network and transmitting the encapsulated address resolution response to the first ELAN;
• de-encapsulating the encapsulated address resolution response and handing over the de-encapsulated address resolution response to the source LAN emulation client.