Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for providing adaptive VPN to enable different security levels in virtual private networks (VPNs)

US7478427B2 · kind B2 · utility

91Cited by
16References
27Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMay 5, 2003
Grant dateJan 13, 2009
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 7, 2025

Classification

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

Abstract

A method and apparatus for providing at least two virtual private network VPN tunnels from a client device in a VPN network having an enterprise gateway and a network VPN gateway. The method and apparatus includes a client device having an Internet Key Exchange (IKE) module for establishing the at least two tunnels using an IKE protocol wherein a first tunnel is an end-to-end VPN tunnel to the enterprise gateway, and a second tunnel is a network-based tunnel to the network VPN gateway. An IPsec Network Driver Interface interfaces with the IKE module, which includes a security authentication database (SADB) that stores downloaded enterprise security policies respectively for each of the at least two tunnels. A routing table stores IP addresses of local presences and hosts respectively associated with the at least two tunnels, whereby packets are routed over the at least two tunnels based on the downloaded policies.

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