Patent ID: 8437357

Claim:
A method for connecting a local system comprising at least two VLANs connected to a local layer 2 switch to a wider network via a router, the method comprising: providing a connection between the local layer 2 switch and a port on the router; assigning, at the layer 2 switch, a VLAN tag to each connected VLAN; communicating outgoing data from a user connected to one of the at least two connected VLANs to the router via the local layer 2 switch, the outgoing data including an address of the user in the VLAN, the intended recipient of the data and the VLAN tag assigned to the VLAN to which the user is connected; assigning, at the router, a single logical layer 3 address of a layer 3 interface to the at least two VLANs connected via the local layer 2 switch; copying the address of the user and the VLAN tag to a forwarding table upon receipt of the outgoing data at the router; forwarding the outgoing data including the single layer 3 address from the assigned layer 3 interface to the wider network for delivery to the intended recipient; receiving at the layer 3 interface incoming data intended for delivery to the user, the data including the single logical layer 3 address without the VLAN tag; consulting the lookup table to obtain the VLAN tag associated with the address of the user; applying the VLAN tag to the incoming data; and forwarding the incoming data and VLAN tag to the local layer 2 switch for delivery to the user.