Patent ID: 8824331

Claim:
A method of identifying from a plurality of candidate ingress provider edge routers, at least one ingress provider edge router of at least one packet, comprising: after at least one packet has been sent through at least a part of a network, said part through which said at least one packet has been sent sharing traffic from a plurality of customers, identifying at a computer system coupled to the network, a customer corresponding to the at least one packet, before identifying at the computer system said at least one ingress provider edge router of the network used to transport the at least one packet; identifying at least one router of the plurality of candidate ingress routers as corresponding to the customer, independently of packets routed by the at least one router; responsive to a number of the at least one of the plurality of candidate ingress routers corresponding to the customer independently of packets routed by the at least one router being one, identifying said one of the plurality of candidate ingress routers corresponding to the customer, independently of packets routed by the at least one router as the ingress provider edge router; additionally comprising, responsive to the number of the at least one of the plurality of candidate ingress routers corresponding to the customer independently of packets routed by the at least one router being more than one: identifying a number of the at least one of the more than one routers that have a route target for said customer corresponding to an address of the at least one packet; and responsive to the number of the at least one of the more than one routers that have the route target for said customer corresponding to the address of the at least one packet being one, identifying said one of the plurality of candidate ingress routers corresponding to the customer independently of packets routed by the at least one router, and having a route target for said customer corresponding to the address of the at least one packet, as the ingress provider edge router; additionally comprising, responsive to the number of the at least one of the more than one routers that have the route target for said customer corresponding to the address of the at least one packet being more than one: identifying a number of the at least one of the more than one routers that have a route target for said customer corresponding to a most specific address of the at least one packet; and responsive to the number of the at least one of the more than one routers that have the route target for said customer corresponding to the most specific address of the at least one packet being one, identifying said one of the plurality of candidate ingress routers corresponding to the customer independently of packets routed by the at least one router, and having a route target for said customer corresponding to the most specific address of the at least one packet, as the ingress provider edge router.