Negotiation of datapath treatment for end-to-end interworked network traffic

A method for negotiating datapath treatment for traffic sourced from a first communications network over an end-to-end path in respect of a path segment provided for said traffic in a second communications network, the path segment being requested for a first edge node of the second communications network and being targeted to a second edge node of the second communications network, the method comprising:

• the first edge node notifying the second edge node that a datapath capability for the path segment is one for selection for the second edge node, wherein the datapath capability includes a datapath interworking capability identifying a plurality of different Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)-Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) datapath interworking types supported by the first edge node, each of said interworking types having an associated network tunnel type through the second communications network, and the datapath interworking capability includes at least one data encapsulation mode supported by the first edge node;
• said first edge node communicating said datapath capability supported by the first edge node from the first edge node to the second edge node;
• the second edge node selecting a datapath interworking type and an encapsulation mode from the communicated datapath capability;
• the second edge node communicating the datapath interworking type and an encapsulation mode so selected by sending a return request message for establishment of the path segment back to the first edge node;
• establishing the path segment through a network tunnel of the second communications network in accordance with the network tunnel type associated with the selected datapath interworking type.