Patent ID: 7203762

Claim:
A communications system which provides virtual private network (VPN) services for a layer-2 VPN and a layer-3 VPN through an intra-network transport path between network nodes, wherein the layer-2 VPN establishes a layer-2 VPN path for end-to-end communication, while the layer-3 VPN establishes a layer-3 VPN path for end-to-end communication, the communications system comprising: (a) a sending device which permits the layer-2 VPN path and layer-3 VPN path to be established within the intra-network transport path, so as to deliver frames from a first part of the layer-2 and layer-3 VPNs to a second part of the layer-2 and layer-3 VPNs through the intra-network transport path, the sending device comprising: a path data manager which sets and manages path data describing configuration of the intra-network transport path, and a labeling unit which adds an intra-network transport label to each of the frames for transport over the intra-network transport path, based on the path data, the frames having been attached a VPN label for transport over the layer-2 or layer-3 VPN path; and (b) a receiving device which receives the frames from the sending device via the intra-network transport path, comprising: a frame discrimination value setting unit which gives a frame discrimination value that is used to determine whether each received frame is a layer-2 VPN frame or a layer-3 VPN frame, and a redirection processor which redirects each received frame to the second part of the layer-2 VPN or the second part of the layer-3 VPN, according to the VPN label and the frame discrimination value, wherein: there are a plurality of intra-network transport paths between the sending device and receiving device; a first group of frames are statically allocated one of the intra-network transport paths, and a second group of frames are dynamically allocated one of the intra-network transport paths; in order to support both the first and second groups of frames, the sending unit manages physical ports corresponding to the individual intra-network transport paths, logical sending ports defined as channels within each physical port, and virtual sending ports indirectly associated with the physical ports; and the sending unit determines which physical port to use for transport of the first and second groups of frames, by first selecting one of the virtual sending ports and then finding a physical port associated with the selected virtual sending port.