Patent ID: 9712504
Date: 2017-07-18
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A method for efficiently managing secure communications using tunnels, comprising: establishing a full encryption tunnel between a first gateway and a second gateway, wherein data packets are entirely encrypted by the first gateway before transmission through the full encryption tunnel to the second gateway; establishing a first virtual tunnel between the first gateway and the second gateway, wherein data packets transmitted through the first virtual tunnel have a reduced level of encryption applied by the first gateway before transmission through the first virtual tunnel in comparison to the full encryption tunnel; receiving, by the first gateway, a set of data packets from a first computing device located within a first network managed by the first gateway, wherein the data packets correspond to a session between the first computing device and a second computing device located in a second network managed by the second gateway; determining whether the data packets in the session are encrypted; and in response to determining that the data packets are encrypted, transmitting the data packets through the first virtual tunnel to the second computing device via the second gateway; and in response to determining that the data packets are unencrypted, transmitting the data packets through the full-encryption tunnel to the second computing device via the second gateway.