Patent ID: 7856014

Claim:
A computer network comprising: a physical first router, said first router being a provider edge multi-protocol label switching capable router, said first router including an internal virtual router and two or more internal tunnels, said two or more internal tunnels beginning and ending within said first router, said virtual router directly connected to two or more virtual private network interfaces by respective tunnels of said two or more internal tunnels, each virtual private network interface of said two or more virtual private network interfaces connected to a respective virtual private network of two or more virtual private networks, said virtual router being a software routing process executable by an operating system of said first router; two or more physical second routers, each second router of said two or more second routers being a provider edge multi-protocol label switching capable router, each second router of said two or more second routers connected to a respective virtual private network of said two or more virtual private networks and directly connected to each other through a multi-protocol switching network; said multi-protocol label switching network containing said two or more virtual private networks, said first router, and said two or more second routers; and wherein each tunnel of said two or more internal tunnels begins at said virtual router and ends at a respective virtual private network interface.