System, method, and computer program for modifying an 802.1Q and/or 802.1QinQ header to reduce a size of an associated data packet

1. A computer program embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising:

computer code for identifying data to be communicated over a network;

computer code for generating at least one data packet for use in communicating the data over the network, wherein each data packet includes an 802.1Q Ethernet header; and

computer code for modifying the Ethernet header to reduce a size of the at least one data packet, where the Ethernet header is modified by:

identifying a plurality of data packets for a single customer-edge virtual local area network (CE-VLAN);

at least partially removing a CE-VLAN identifier (CE-VLAN ID) from the Ethernet header of each of the data packets; and

distributing the CE-VLAN ID across the data packets, such that a different portion of the CE-VLAN ID is included in each of the Ethernet headers of the data packets.

2. The computer program of claim 1 , wherein the computer program is operable such that data is identified by a device utilized for communicating the data over the network.

3. The computer program of claim 1 , wherein the computer program is operable such that the data is identified in response to a request to communicate the data over the network.

4. The computer program of claim 1 , wherein the computer program is operable such that the Ethernet header is modified by removing a first eight bits of a virtual local area network identifier from a tag of the Ethernet header, and overriding a last eight bits of a tag protocol identifier included in the tag of the Ethernet header with the first eight bits of the virtual local area network identifier.

5. The computer program of claim 4 , wherein the computer program is operable such that the modification to the Ethernet header reduces a size of each of the at least one data packet by two bytes.

6. The computer program of claim 1 , wherein the generation of the at least one data packet and the modification of the Ethernet header is performed at a router using the at least one data packet to communicate the data over the network.

7. A method, comprising:

identifying data to be communicated over a network;

generating at least one data packet for use in communicating the data over the network, wherein each data packet includes an 802.1Q Ethernet header; and

modifying the Ethernet header to reduce a size of the at least one data packet, where the Ethernet header is modified by:

identifying a plurality of data packets for a single customer-edge virtual local area network (CE-VLAN);

at least partially removing a CE-VLAN identifier (CE-VLAN ID) from the Ethernet header of each of the data packets; and

distributing the CE-VLAN ID across the data packets, such that a different portion of the CE-VLAN ID is included in each of the Ethernet headers of the data packets.

8. A system, comprising:

a processor for:

identifying data to be communicated over a network;

generating at least one data packet for use in communicating the data over the network, wherein each data packet includes an 802.1Q Ethernet header; and

modifying the Ethernet header to reduce a size of the at least one data packet, where the Ethernet header is modified by:

identifying a plurality of data packets for a single customer-edge virtual local area network (CE-VLAN);

at least partially removing a CE-VLAN identifier (CE-VLAN ID) from the Ethernet header of each of the data packets; and

distributing the CE-VLAN ID across the data packets, such that a different portion of the CE-VLAN ID is included in each of the Ethernet headers of the data packets.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the processor is coupled to memory via a bus.