Patent ID: 7039720

Claim:
A virtual routing system, comprising: a memory divided into a configurable number of context areas for a corresponding set of virtual private routed networks (VPRNs), each context area including a routing table and associated routing protocol state information for the corresponding VPRN, each VPRN employing a respective routing protocol and network address space; a set of one or more routing tasks, the set including at least one routing task for each different type of routing protocol employed in the set of VPRNs, each routing task being operable only with a separate routing table and with separate routing protocol state information to realize a corresponding virtual router to carry out associated routing operations in a VPRN; and context selection logic operative to selectively couple the routing tasks to the different context areas of the memory to realize a set of virtual routers, each virtual router being associated with a corresponding one of the VPRNs.