Patent ID: 7430210

Claim:
A virtual private network (VPN), comprising: a core network, the core network comprising Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) network over SONET; a plurality of Virtual Local Access Networks (VLANs), each coupled to a Multiservice Provision Platform (MSPP) of the SONET network, the VLANs each communicating traffic with a corresponding MSPP utilizing Ethernet; and the MSPPs interfacing the VLANs with the SONET network, the MSPPs each operable to: convert an ingress VLAN packet received from a VLAN and associated with a VPN to an MPLS packet and send the MPLS packet to the SONET network over one or more SONET paths, wherein converting an ingress VLAN packet to an MPLS packet comprises identifying a VPN label that corresponds to a VLAN identifier (VID) of the ingress VLAN packet and generating an MPLS packet having the VPN label; and convert an MPLS packet received from the SONET network to an egress VLAN packet and send the egress packet to a VLAN associated with the VPN, wherein converting an MPLS packet to an egress VLAN packet comprises identifying a VID that corresponds to a VPN label contained in the received MPLS packet and generating a VLAN packet having the VID.