Patent ID: 7369556

Claim:
A method for operating a provider edge router, comprising: receiving a data packet by the provider edge router from a first customer edge router of a customer network, the data packet associated with a particular virtual private network (VPN) of the customer network; creating a header for forwarding the data packet, the header containing a first tag and a second tag, the first tag to be read by a provider transit router, the first tag indicating a next-hop on a path through a provider network to a second provider edge router, and the second tag to be read by the second provider edge router, the second tag indicating an egress channel of the second provider edge router providing access to a second customer edge router that is part of the VPN; and forwarding the data packet with the header to the provider transit router so that the provider transit router can forward the data packet toward the second provider edge router in response to the first tag, and the second provider edge router can forward the data packet to the second customer edge router in response to the second tag.