Methods of establishing virtual circuits and of providing a virtual private network service through a shared network, and provider edge device for such network
US8713185B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jan 22, 2002 |
| Grant date | Apr 29, 2014 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Aug 24, 2027 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L63/162
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A virtual private network (VPN) service is provided through a shared network infrastructure comprising interconnected provider edge (PE) devices having customer edge (CE) interfaces. Some of the CE interfaces are allocated to a VPN supporting virtual LANs. A correspondence between a CE interface and a virtual LAN is learnt on the basis of tagged frames received at this CE interface and including an identifier of this virtual LAN. The learning process permits the detection of pairs of CE interfaces which correspond to a common virtual LAN. Upon such detection, a virtual circuit is established in the shared network infrastructure between the PE devices having these CE interfaces, and subsequently used for forwarding frames including the identifier of the common virtual VLAN.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.