According to embodiments of the invention, a first ring node is arranged to protect against loops in an Ethernet ring by performing Ethernet ring protection (ERP) according to an Ethernet ring protection protocol (ERP) standard. The first ring node is located directly adjacent to at least one second ring node in the Ethernet ring which is not configured to perform ERP according to the same ERP protocol standard. The first ring node is configured to, upon detection of a link failure or recovery event in the Ethernet ring resulting in a flush operation of the filtering database (FDB) in the first ring node in accordance with the ERP protocol standard, send a message to the at least one second ring node which is operable to cause said at least one second ring node to perform a flush operation of its filtering database (FDB). Embodiments of the invention also include an Ethernet ring, a broadband communications network and methods for use in the first ring node and in the Ethernet ring.