A network comprising a switch configured to switch traffic between a plurality of external interfaces via a plurality of virtual interfaces associated with the external interfaces, wherein the traffic comprises a plurality of external virtual local area network (VLAN) identifiers (VIDs) associated with the external interfaces to select the virtual interfaces, and wherein the virtual interfaces are configured to forward traffic based on an internal VID that is assigned to the traffic independent of the external VID. Also disclosed is a network component comprising at least one processor configured to implement a method comprising receiving a frame from a physical port, obtaining an external VID from a VLAN tag in the frame, removing the VLAN tag from the frame, selecting a virtual interface based on the external VID, and delivering the frame to the selected virtual interface.