Virtual private network
US5768271A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 12, 1996 |
| Grant date | Jun 16, 1998 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Apr 12, 2016 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L2012/5645
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
In a packet switching (packet-based) network, such as a frame relay (FR) network, which includes network resources made up of networked elements and customer premises equipment interconnected by one or more physical paths, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is built above the underlying packet-based network and includes selected portions of the packet-based network resources. The VPN is a collection of logical nodes and virtual paths (VPs) and includes one or more virtual circuits (VCs), each VC being a logical connection between VC terminators including network elements and customer premises equipment. Segments of the VCs are carried by VPs, each VP being a logical connection established between two VP terminators which are located in either network elements or customer premises equipment. One or more VPs are multiplexed on a physical path (PP). Each VP is allocated a positive guaranteed bandwidth (VP-CIR), and each VC on a VP is also allocated a bandwidth (VC-CIR) greater than or equal to zero. Packets of information to be transmitted over a VC are provided with a unique address field to thereby identify the VCs and VPs associated with the VPN over which the packet of information wi…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.