Ethernet wide area networks and methods

For use with a first local area network having a first local area Ethernet switch and a second local area network having a second local area Ethernet switch, an Ethernet wide area network, comprising:

• a first network Ethernet switch having a first network interface and a first service interface, the first service interface to communicate with the first local area Ethernet switch;
• a second network Ethernet switch having a second network interface and a second service interface, the second service interface to communicate with the second local area Ethernet switch;
• and
• a root node network Ethernet switch having a third network interface to communicate with the first network interface of the first network Ethernet switch and a fourth network interface to communicate with the second network interface of the second network Ethernet switch, a spanning tree associated with the first network Ethernet switch, the second network Ethernet switch and the root node network Ethernet switch including medium access control addresses for the first, second, third and fourth service interfaces, but not including medium access control addresses of either of the first or second local area Ethernet switches.

An Ethernet network, comprising:

• a first local Ethernet network having a first plurality of hubs;
• a second local area Ethernet network having a second plurality of hubs;
• and
• a wide area Ethernet network communicatively coupling the first and second local area Ethernet networks, the wide area Ethernet network having a third plurality of hubs, a sum of the first, second and third plurality of hubs exceeding seven, wherein the first, second and third plurality of hubs send topology updates via broadcast protocol data unit packets.