A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes establishing a virtual trunk link between a first network element and a second network element. The first and second network elements are located at a first site and the first site and a second site comprise at least a portion of an overlay network. The method further includes receiving data traffic at the first network element, which data traffic is associated with a segment of the overlay network, and mapping a first network identifier allocated to the overlay network segment at the first network element to a virtual trunk link and a VLAN ID. The method additionally includes forwarding the data traffic from the first network element to the second network element via the virtual trunk link with the VLAN ID.