Patent ID: 8130764
Filing Date: 2012-03-06
Classification: G06F,H04L

Abstract:
1. An apparatus comprising: a single network device, to be coupled between a plurality of subscriber end stations and a plurality of network domains to communicate packets there between, including, a set of one or more processors; a first plurality of transceivers to communicate said packets with the plurality of subscriber end stations; a second plurality of transceivers to communicate said packets with the plurality of network domains; and a non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored therein a set of one or more instructions to cause the set of one or more processors to, instantiate a plurality of virtual network machines, wherein the plurality of virtual network machines are virtually independent but share a set of one or more physical resources within the single network device, wherein each of the plurality of virtual network machines is one of a virtual router and a virtual bridge, and wherein each of the plurality of virtual network machines belong to a different respective one of the plurality of network domains, dynamically bind different sub-interfaces with network interfaces of different ones of the virtual network machines based on network domains identified by subscriber records to communicatively couple different ones of the plurality of subscriber end stations with different ones of the plurality of network domains, wherein the bindings are represented with a plurality of data structures, wherein each of a plurality of subscribers is associated with at least one of the plurality of subscriber end stations, wherein each of the subscriber end stations is associated with at least one of the sub-interfaces, and wherein the subscriber records identify, for different ones of the plurality of subscribers, different ones of the plurality of network domains to which the different ones of the virtual network machines belong, and communicate said packets between the plurality of subscriber end stations and the plurality of network domains.