METHODS OF ESTABLISHING VIRTUAL CIRCUITS AND OF PROVIDING A VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK SERVICE THROUGH A SHARED NETWORK, AND PROVIDER EDGE DEVICE FOR SUCH NETWORK

摘要

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.

主权项

1. A method of establishing a virtual circuit including at least one provider edge (PE) device for a virtual private network having a plurality of customer edge (CE) devices, the method comprising the steps of:
receiving, at a first said PE device, an indication from at least one said CE device identifying a virtual LAN (VLAN) which includes said CE device; and establishing, for each VLAN identified which includes a plurality of CE devices in which at least one said CE device is connected to a second PE device, a virtual circuit between said first and second PE devices.