Provider network and provider edge apparatus

A provider edge apparatus included in a plurality of provider edge apparatuses coupling with a plurality of customer edge apparatuses via a plurality of access lines and coupling with a specified customer edge apparatus included in the plurality of customer edge apparatuses via a first access line, the provider edge apparatus comprising:

• an ingress processing unit to generate a first encapsulated frame to be transmitted to another provider edge apparatus different from the provider edge apparatus coupled to another customer edge apparatus, wherein the encapsulated frame includes a frame received from the specified customer edge apparatus and directed to the another customer edge apparatus;
• an egress processing unit to extract a frame to be forwarded to the specified customer edge apparatus from a second encapsulated frame received from provider edge apparatuses other than the provider edge apparatus;
• a storage to store an identifier of the provider edge apparatus and an identifier of the another provider edge apparatus when the specified customer edge apparatus is coupled to the another edge apparatus via a second access line included in the plurality of access lines, wherein the identifiers corresponds to a group identifier indicating an access line group to which the two or more access lines belong;
• and
• a filter to discard the first or second encapsulated frame, received from the provider edge apparatuses other than the provider edge apparatus, or a frame in the first or second encapsulated frame satisfying a filter condition (1) or a filter condition (2),
• wherein the filter condition (1) is such that an identifier of a provider edge apparatus indicating a transmission source of the encapsulated frame is being stored in the storage, and
• the filter condition (2) is such that the encapsulated frame is a multicast frame received by the provider edge apparatus, and the another provider edge apparatus which the identifier thereof is stored in the storage performs an output processing of the multicast frame, and
• wherein the provider edge apparatus receives a group information frame including the group identifier and an identifier of a provider edge apparatus being a transmission source of the group information frame and stores, in the storage, the group identifier, the identifier of the provider edge apparatus of the transmission source and an identifier of the provider edge apparatus itself in association with each other.

A frame filtering method of a provider edge apparatus included in a plurality of provider edge apparatuses coupling with a plurality of customer edge apparatuses via a plurality of access lines and coupling with a specified customer edge apparatus in the plurality of customer edge apparatuses via a first access line, the method comprising:

• discarding a first encapsulated frame to be transmitted to another provider edge apparatus or a second encapsulated frame received from the another provider edge apparatus other than the provider edge apparatus itself and satisfying a filter condition (1) or a filter condition (2), based on an identifier of the provider edge apparatus and an identifier of another provider edge apparatus corresponding to a group identifier specifying an access line group to which the first access line and a second access line included in the plurality of access lines belong, wherein the identifier of the provider edge apparatus and the identifier of the another provider edge apparatus are stored in a storage when the specified customer edge apparatus is coupled to the another provider edge apparatus via the second access line,
• wherein the filter condition (1) is such that an identifier of a provider edge apparatus indicating a transmission source of the first or the second encapsulated frame is being stored in the storage, and
• the filter condition (2) is such that the first or the second encapsulated frame is a multicast frame received by the provider edge apparatus, and the another provider edge apparatus performs an output processing of the multicast frame, and
• wherein the provider edge apparatus receives a group information frame including the group identifier and an identifier of a provider edge apparatus being a transmission source of the group information frame and stores, in the storage, the group identifier, the identifier of the provider edge apparatus of the transmission source and an identifier of the provider edge apparatus itself in association with each other.