A processing device (CM) programmed to determine homing paths for a plurality of virtual private local area network services in an Ethernet network comprising a plurality of PE nodes. The processing device is programmed to perform the steps of computing (32-48) a plurality of sets of different homing configurations, computing (52) a cost function for each set of different homing configurations in the plurality of sets of different homing configurations, and selecting (58) a set of homing configurations from the plurality of sets of different homing configurations in response to a respective computed cost function.