Patent ID: 7899916

Claim:
A method of establishing a connection between a first endpoint participating in a first protocol and a second endpoint participating in a second protocol, the method including: establishing a virtual service endpoint to participate in the first protocol on a network device coupled to the first endpoint and the second endpoint, wherein the virtual service endpoint is configured to provide interworking between the first protocol and the second protocol, wherein the virtual service endpoint includes a first half virtual service endpoint and a second half virtual service endpoint, the first half virtual service endpoint to participate in the first protocol and the second half virtual service endpoint to participate in the second protocol; and using a forwarding table to forward communication to the second endpoint via the virtual service endpoint, the forwarding table to include: a mapping from a first interface associated with the first protocol to the first half virtual service endpoint; a mapping from the first half virtual service endpoint to the second half virtual service endpoint; and a mapping from the second half virtual service endpoint to a second interface associated with the second protocol.