System and method for generating route target attributes

Abstract

A system for, and method of, generating a minimum quantity of route target attributes is described. According to a method embodiment, a minimal set of unique permutations of data flows between sites of one or more Virtual Private Network (VPNs) is computed by comparing permutations of data flows to and from each site of a customer (i.e., variations of connectivity between sites) and identifying which permutation of data flows are unique while ignoring any duplicate permutations of data flows. Unique route target attributes are then generated, each route target attribute corresponding to a particular one of the unique permutations of data flows. Typically, the quantity of unique route target numbers generated is equal to the minimum quantity of unique permutations of data flows.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.