Patent ID: 7684411

Claim:
An apparatus for limiting Virtual Private Network (VPN) v4 prefixes per VPN in an inter-autonomous system environment, the apparatus comprising: a communications interface, the communications interface connecting to a first autonomous system and to a second autonomous system; a memory, the memory storing an application; and a processor which is constructed and arranged to run the application stored in memory, and when running the application is operative to: define a limit on the number of VPNv4 routes per VPN for a Route Distributor (RD) associated with a VPN; determine if a number of received routes at the communications interface exceeds the limit; send, across the communications interface, a soft notification to a neighboring Autonomous System Border Router (ASBR) when the number of received routes exceeds the limit; and discard routes exceeding the limit when the number of received routes exceeds the limit.