Ethernet ring protection without MAC table flushing

A network device located in an Ethernet ring may be operable to determine binding between a MAC address and a peer device in the Ethernet ring. The binding may indicate that the MAC address is behind the peer device. When an Ethernet ring failure occurs, the network device may be operable to update forwarding information based on a ring topology of the Ethernet ring, a position of the failure on the Ethernet ring and the binding. The forwarding information may indicate which ring port that is used on the network device to forward MAC frames to a destination corresponding to the MAC address. The network device may then forward the MAC frames based on the updated forwarding information. The Ethernet ring may utilize a VLAN frame format, a Q-in-Q frame format or a MAC-in-MAC frame format. The forwarding information may comprise a MAC table and/or a protection table.