Patent ID: 9736027
Date: 2017-08-15
CPC Classifications: G06F,H04L

Claim:
1. A method, comprising: creating a layer 3 (L3) tunneled connection between a primary intermediate branch director (IBD) in a first branch of an enterprise network and a first proxy IBD in a second branch of the enterprise network, wherein the first and second branches of the enterprise network comprise distinct local networks connected by the L3 tunneled connection over a wide area network (WAN), wherein the primary IBD and the proxy IBD are network devices comprising one of a network router and a network switch; enabling a smart install protocol on the L3 tunneled connection; receiving, at the primary IBD from the first proxy IBD through the L3 tunneled connection based on the smart install protocol, network topology information for each of a plurality of intermediate branch clients (IBCs) in the second branch of the enterprise network, wherein the IBCs comprise network switches, wherein the network topology information specifies a connection between a first IBC and a second IBC of the plurality of IBCs in the second branch of the enterprise network; receiving a request to configure the first IBC in the second branch of the enterprise network; referencing the network topology information to determine that the first proxy IBD is a proxy for the first IBC; determining, by the primary IBD, an outgoing virtual private network (VPN) ID of the first proxy IBD; and issuing, by the primary IBD based on the determined VPN ID and to the first proxy IBD through the L3 tunneled connection, a command based on the smart install protocol to remotely configure the first IBC in the second branch of the enterprise network.