Patent ID: 7436782

Claim:
A method of provisioning support for Virtual Private Network (VPN) services, centrally, in a network management context, the method comprising the steps of: establishing a full transport mesh of bidirectional Label Switched Paths (LSPs) between a plurality of managed Provider Edge (PE) communications network nodes in a managed communications network, the step of establishing the full transport mesh comprising: selecting a group of PE communications network nodes participating in the managed communications network, each PE communications network node comprising a Label Switched Router (LSR), deriving a corresponding plurality of PE communications network node pairs from the selected group of PE communications network nodes, and issuing LSP commissioning commands to each PE communications network node in the group to establish an LSP in respect of each corresponding PE communications network node pair; establishing a full signaling mesh of targeted Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) signaling sessions between the plurality of PE communications network nodes; and removing a PE communications network node from the group, the step of removing the PE communications network node comprising: selecting at least one provisioned LSP terminating at the PE communications network node to be removed, determining two PE communications network nodes corresponding to ends of the at least one selected LSP, determining whether content is being conveyed via the at least one selected LSP in respect of at least one actively provisioned VPN service, selectively issuing LSP decommissioning commands to the two PE communications network nodes corresponding to the ends of the at least one selected LSP when a determination is made that no content is being conveyed through the at least one selected LSP, and excluding the PE communications network node from the group if all selected LSPs have been decommissioned.