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US 2006/0190573 A1Published application
Method and apparatus for multiple contexts and layer 3 virtual private networks
OwnerRavi Chandra, Enke Chen +1inventors
InventorsRavi Chandra, Enke Chen, Jenny Yuan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method an apparatus for multiple contexts and layer 3 virtual private networks is described. A method comprises providing a layer 3 virtual private network (VPN) to a first customer; providing backbone access to a second customer; and maintaining on a single network element a first set of information for the first customer separately from a second set of information for the second customer.
Claims10
A network element comprising:
- a control card to host an exterior gateway protocol (EGP) process and an interior gateway protocol (IGP) process;
- a machine readable medium coupled with the control card, the machine readable medium having a set of instructions to
- cause the network element to maintain a first set of information for a first layer 3 virtual private network (VPN) and separately maintain a second set of information for a second layer 3 VPN,
- to maintain a single exterior gateway protocol (EGP) table for the first layer 3 VPN and the second layer 3 VPN,
- to identify the first layer 3 VPN with a first value and to identify the second layer 3 VPN with a second value, and
- to associate a first route distinguisher (RD) with the first value and a second RD with the second value;
- a line card coupled with the control card, the first line card to process traffic for the first layer 3 VPN and the second layer 3 VPN;
- a first interface coupled with the line card, the first interface to receive traffic for the first layer 3 VPN;
- and
- a second interface coupled with the line card, the second interface to receive traffic for the second layer 3 VPN.
7 more elements
A system comprising:
- a first piece of customer equipment to transmit and receive traffic within a first layer 3 virtual private network (VPN);
- a second piece of customer equipment to transmit and receive traffic within a second layer 3 VPN;
- and
- a network element coupled with the first piece of customer equipment and the second piece of customer equipment, the network element to maintain a first set of information for the first layer 3 VPN and separately maintain a second set of information for the second layer 3 VPN, the first set of information to include a first value identifying the first layer 3 VPN and the second set of information to include a second value identifying the second layer 3 VPN, to maintain a single shared exterior gateway protocol (EGP) table for the first layer 3 VPN and the second layer 3 VPN, and to associate the first value with a first route distinguisher (RD) and the second value with a second RD.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.