Patent ID: 7849197

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: (A) at least one processor; (B) a memory coupled to the at least one processor; (C) a shared resource coupled to the at least one processor, wherein sharing of the shared resource is controlled by a shared resource server, wherein the shared resource comprises one of a modem and a virtual private network (VPN); and (D) a resource sharing mechanism residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, the resource sharing mechanism including: a first mechanism that establishes a layer two tunneling protocol (L2TP) tunnel between the shared resource server and a client; a second mechanism that establishes an outgoing connection from the client through the shared resource via the L2TP tunnel using a plurality of messages defined by a predefined L2TP protocol for the L2TP tunnel; and a third mechanism that establishes an incoming connection through the shared resource to the client via the L2TP tunnel using a plurality of messages defined by user-defined extensions to the L2TP protocol for the L2TP tunnel, wherein the plurality of messages defined by the user-defined extensions to the L2TP protocol comprise an accept incoming call request message and an accept incoming call reply message.