Patent ID: 8724505

Claim:
A method for distributing client Virtual Private Network (VPN)-related information within a network using a source-independent distributed advertisement, comprising: operating the network without utilizing Border Gateway Protocol (BGP); incorporating the client VPN-related information related to a node of the network into the source-independent distributed advertisement associated with an Automatically Switched Optical Network (ASON) or Generalized Multiprotocol Label Switching (GMPLS) routing protocol in lieu of using BGP therefor, wherein the source-independent distributed advertisement comprises a client reachability advertisement with a client address and information relevant to VPN membership; distributing the source-independent distributed advertisement from one of the node of the network, another node of the network, and a central management system to at least one other node of the network using Type-Length-Value (TLV) fields in existing messages of the ASON or GMPLS routing protocol without generating additional routing protocol traffic comprising creation and generation of Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) advertisements for advertisements related to the VPN membership, wherein the source-independent distributed advertisement is not sent to a client interface; and updating other VPN-related information with the client VPN-related information related to the node of the network at the at least one other node of the network; wherein the source-independent distributed advertisement comprises the client reachability advertisement comprising a Transport Network-Assigned Address (TNA) advertisement.