An ED within EVI network establishes an EVI tunnel for bearing Ethernet packets and an EVI extension tunnel for bearing IP packets, where both the EVI tunnel and the EVI extension tunnel are connected to a peer ED. The ED sends an Ethernet packet for layer 2 forwarding in an EVI forwarding instance through the EVI tunnel; and sendsan IP packet for layer 3 forwarding in the EVI forwarding instance through the EVI extension tunnel.
