Patent ID: 8208377

Claim:
A method for constructing one or more virtual path-included routes between an egress border router and a virtual aggregation router in a virtual route aggregation system comprising: the egress border router generating one or more messages that include information necessary to create a layer-2 tunnel for the one or more virtual path-included routes, wherein the one or more messages include: an advertisement message having one or more IP prefixes that fall within a virtual path on a virtual path list; and a label distribution message having an IP address of an external router that is external to the virtual route aggregation system and a MAC destination address of either the external router or the egress border router; creating an entry in a layer-2 table on the egress border router that is used to switch a packet, on the one or more virtual path-included routes, that includes layer-2 information corresponding to the entry; and using an interior gateway protocol to propagate the one or more messages to at least one virtual aggregation router which uses the information in the one or more messages to create a layer-3 table entry that is used to forward the packet over the one or more virtual path-included routes.