Patent ID: 7869442

Claim:
A network element, comprising: a first processor containing control logic configured to implement an Internet Protocol (IP) application process; a second processor containing control logic configured to implement a Virtual Private Network (VPN) routing entity; and control logic configured to implement a steering policy manager, wherein the IP application process is operating in the context of the VPN and requires access to IP flows over the VPN, the IP application process being configured to generate policies associated with IP packet flows on the network element and pass the policies to the steering policy manager, and wherein the policies manager is configured to implement the steering policies by passing the policies to at least one steering policy agent configured to enable IP packets in the IP packet flows to be affected by the policies, so that the IP application process associated with the VPN may obtain access to the IP flows over the VPN even though it is instantiated on the first processor rather than being instantiated on the second processor hosting the VPN routing entity.