AbstractThe proposed Ring Network with VLAN Tag offers the features of wrapping/steering control functions and 1+1 path protection function, maintaining compatibility with the Ethernet media access control scheme. The key technology for “Path concept” is VLAN tag swapping operation. A set of primary and backup paths is defined between ring nodes, which are distinguished by a flag bit in VLAN tag field. On failure detection, the path is switched within the path set by the tag swapping. Tag swapping at the failure detection node, while tag swapping at the source node achieves steering operation, achieves Wrapping operation. The restoration behavior is almost the same as that of Resilient Packet Ring (RPR). Since the tag swapping control is based on hardware processing, high‐speed operation is also expected. Furthermore, because the paths are independently designed from the physical topology, the scheme can be applied to networks other than physical ring networks. The proposed scheme will fit to the path control for next‐generation Ethernet over WDM system. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 166(1): 60–66, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.20422