Wireless area network (WAN) overloading

A computer program product adapted for installation on a local host device of a virtual routing network, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing programming that includes instructions to:

• receive incoming packets over a wide area network (WAN) interface of a local host device, wherein one or more tunnels extend from the WAN interface of the local host device to remote WAN interfaces of remote host devices, and wherein the incoming packets are stored in a virtual data forwarding unit instantiated on the local host device;
• assign one of a plurality of traffic classifications to the incoming packets, the plurality of traffic classifications including at least tunneled traffic, tunnel-related control traffic, and remote agent traffic, wherein the tunneled traffic classifies packets transported over the one or more tunnels, wherein the tunnel-related control traffic classifies packets communicated to measure a quality parameter of the one or more tunnels, and wherein the remote agent traffic classifies packets associated with a virtual remote agent instantiated on the local host device;
• attempt to validate the incoming packets using authentication procedures associated with the assigned traffic classifications, wherein different authentication procedures are associated with different traffic classifications, and wherein incoming packets deemed invalid are dropped from the virtual data forwarding unit buffer;
• and
• process or forward incoming packets that are successfully validated.