Patent ID: 7715380

Claim:
In a network device for routing a packet, a method, comprising: maintaining a plurality of routing tables, each of a plurality of virtual private networks being associated with a different one of the plurality of routing tables; receiving a packet, the packet including an IP source address and an IP destination address, the packet further including information indicating one of the plurality of routing tables to route the packet, the information identifying one of the plurality of virtual private networks; performing Network Address Translation on the packet using a translation table to generate a translated packet; identifying one of the plurality of routing tables to route the translated packet using the information indicating one of the plurality of routing tables to route the packet such that one of the plurality of routing tables corresponding to the one of the plurality of virtual private networks is identified; identifying an entry in the identified one of the plurality of routing tables using the IP destination address; routing the translated packet using the identified routing table entry; receiving a default route to a network device providing one or more shared services, the default route to the network device providing one or more shared services being advertised by the network device providing one or more shared services, wherein each of the shared services is available to each of the plurality of virtual private networks; and updating each of the plurality of routing tables to include the default route, thereby enabling the plurality of virtual private networks to access the shared services via the default route that is included in each of the plurality of routing tables.