Apparatus for data communications, comprising: a hub, comprising a plurality of ports, which are configured to receive and transmit data frames in accordance with a packet-oriented Layer 2 communication protocol; and a plurality of edge devices, each such edge device comprising: at least one network port for communicating with the ports of the hub via a network in accordance with the packet-oriented Layer 2 communication protocol; one or more native interfaces, for communicating with client nodes in accordance with respective native Layer 2 protocols, at least one of which is different from the packet-oriented Layer 2 communication protocol; and a protocol converter, which is configured to convert the data frames received on the one or more native interfaces from at least a first format specified by the native Layer 2 protocols to a second format specified by the packet-oriented Layer 2 communication protocol, so as to transmit the data frames in the second format via the at least one network port, and to convert the data frames received on the at least one network port from the second format to at least the first format, so as to transmit the data frames in at least the first format via the one or more native interfaces, such that the edge devices are configured to direct the data frames received from two or more of the native interfaces to one of the ports of the hub, and to map the two or more of the native interfaces to different, respective Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) on the network, such that the at least one network port comprises an Ethernet port, and such that the one or more native interfaces comprise at least one of a time domain multiplexed (TDM) interface and a serial interface. view more

The apparatus according to claim 2, such that the native Layer 2 protocols are selected from a group of protocols consisting of a Frame Relay protocol, an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) protocol, a High-level Data Link Control (HDLC) protocol, a Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), a Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) protocol, and the Ethernet protocol. view more

The network element according to claim 8, wherein the resource comprises a bandwidth on a common network segment connected to the network element and traversed by the routes.

A computer software product used in a network element, the product comprising a computer-readable medium, in which program instructions are stored, which instructions, when read by a computer, cause the computer to accept a notification, distributed over a communication network, of an affiliation with a resource-sharing group of at least first and second tunnels, which have respective origin network elements and termination network elements and which traverse different routes through the network, and to allocate a resource associated with the network element so as to share, when the network element is traversed by at least some of the tunnels in the resource-sharing group, an allocation of the resource among the at least some of the tunnels responsively to the notification, wherein the tunnels meet at least one condition selected from a group of conditions consisting of: the respective origin network elements of the first and second tunnels are different; and the respective termination network elements of the first and second tunnels are different. view more