Patent · US Expired

Network with virtual “Virtual Private Network” server

US7283534B1 · kind B1 · utility

46Cited by
15References
8Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateNov 22, 2002
Grant dateOct 16, 2007
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 25, 2025

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L63/164
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A distributed network is provided with mobile user devices, a virtual “Virtual Private Network” (VPN) server, and a plurality of physical VPN servers, wherein the virtual VPN server allows all mobile user devices to be configured with a single VPN server address, namely that of the virtual VPN server. The plurality of physical VPM servers all recognize and intercept network traffic sent to the virtual VPN server address, so that traffic can be distributed throughout the network. Specifically, each real VPN server responds to network traffic sent by a mobile user device to the address of the virtual VPN server and communicates with the mobile user device using the virtual VPN server address in preference to the individually assigned address of the real VPN server.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.