Patent ID: 8085776

Claim:
A method comprising: creating, within a physical provider edge device (PE) of a service provider, a Virtual Routing and Forwarding device (VRF) having a plurality of Virtual Private Network (VPN) Protocol Instance Modules (VRPs), a single routing information base (RIB) and a single forwarding information base (FIB), the VRF operable to interface with customer edge devices (CEs) associated with a plurality of VPN sites of one or more customers of the service provider that participate in a common set of VPNs; associating a VRP of the plurality of VRPs with each VPN of the common set of VPNs; receiving at the PE a first data packet from a first CE of the CEs on a first VPN of the common set of VPNs; a first VRP of the plurality of VRPs associated with the first VPN accessing the single RIB to acquire routing information for the first data packet; receiving at the PE a second data packet from a second CE of the CEs on a second VPN of the common set of VPNs; a second VRP of the plurality of VRPs associated with the second VPN accessing the single RIB to acquire routing information for the second data packet; and wherein the plurality of VRPs are implemented in one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media of the PE, the one or more computer-readable media having instructions tangibly embodied therein operable to instantiate the plurality of VRPs responsive to execution by the one or more processors.