Patent ID: 8104082

Claim:
A network security method for exchanging IP packets and IP tunnel packets between secured networks, the method comprising: determining first and second packets received from a first secured network are addressed to a virtual security interface that represents, logically, a plurality of security interfaces to a second secured network; when the first and second packets are addressed to the virtual security interface, establishing at a first one of the plurality of security interfaces, a first secured network connection between the first secured network and the second secured network; responding to a network condition by establishing, at a second one of the plurality of security interfaces, at least one second secured network connection between the first secured network and the second secured network, the at least one second secured network connection being logically the same as the first secured network connection; sending the first and second packets to the second secured network using both the first and the at least one second secured network connections; and wherein the first and the at least one second secured network connections are established using the address of the virtual security interface to which the first and second packets are addressed rather than using the addresses of the first and second security interfaces to conserve addresses.