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 provider edge (PE) device for a shared network infrastructure, comprising:
at least one network interface configured for communication with other PE devices through the shared network infrastructure; at least one local customer edge (CE) interface; at least one controller coupled to the at least one network interface and the at least one CE interface and configured: to allocate at least one local CE interface to a Layer 2 Virtual Private Network (VPN) supporting a plurality of virtual local area networks (VLANs), the allocated local CE interface being arranged for exchanging tagged data frames with a respective CE device, each tagged frame including a VLAN identifier; to learn a correspondence between a first local CE interface allocated to the Layer 2 VPN and a first VLAN identifier included in at least one tagged frame received from a CE device at the first local CE interface; to identify another PE device having a CE interface allocated to the Layer 2 VPN and having received a tagged frame including the first VLAN identifier; and to establish a virtual circuit in the shared network infrastructure, for communicating frames including the first VLAN identifier with the identified PE device.