Overlay network
AssigneeCable Television Laboratories, Inc.
InventorsChristopher Grundemann, Christopher J. Donley, Vikas Sarawat, Karthik Sundaresan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An overlay network is contemplated. The overlay network may be characterized as supporting, or at least virtually supporting, separate networks over a common infrastructure. The common infrastructure may be comprised of a plurality of routers or other devices configured to facilitate directing messages according to various addressing requirements. The use of the separate networks may be dictated according to the particular addressing requirements of each message desired for transport.
Claims20
A networking system configured to facilitate message exchange between an inside network and an outside network, the inside network connecting to inside devices and the outside network connecting to outside devices, the system comprising:
- an edge router configured to direct messages between the inside network and the outside network;
- one or more internal routers configured to direct messages between the edge router and one or more inside devices;
- and
- wherein the edge router and the internal routers include routing tables configured to control whether messages are routed between the edge router and the inside devices over one of at least a first network and a second network as a function of destination addresses associated therewith, the first and second networks sharing a common infrastructure such that messages routed over the first and second networks commonly route through a lowest layer router connected to the inside device associated therewith.
A method of configuring an inside network comprised of a plurality of routers to facilitate communications with an outside network, the method comprising:
- assigning inside devices connected to the inside network a unique local address (ULA) and a globally unique address (GUA);
- instructing one or more of the routers to route inside messages without encapsulation, the inside messages being messages having one of the ULAs as the destination address;
- and
- instructing one or more of the routers to encapsulate outside messages for transmission through one or more tunnels, the outside messages being messages having one of the GUAs as the destination address.
A network comprising:
- a plurality of routers configured to direct messages according to addressing rules, wherein the routers are configured to direct messages having a first type of addressing through a plurality of tunnels and to direct messages having a second type of addressing outside of the plurality of tunnels.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.