Embodiments of the disclosure are directed to implementing a router Media Access Control (MAC) Ethernet switch in a network. An Ethernet-over-Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) packet switch system includes a transport switching element communicatively coupled to one or more routers in a client layer and communicatively coupled via a photonic switching layer with a plurality of transport switching elements forming a transport layer; wherein the transport switching element is configured to flood addresses, in the transport layer, associated with the one or more routers to disseminate learned end-point addresses of the one or more routers so that service-based addressing is resolved by the transport layer. The addresses from the client layer are flooded in the control plane which is a lower layer control plane relative to the client layer to allow the transport switching element and the plurality of transport switching elements to use of the addresses.