Patent ID: 7564802

Claim:
A method, comprising: determining virtual private network (VPN) membership for each of a plurality of customer edge (CE) routers, each VPN being associated with at least one respective VPN route forwarding (VRF) table, each VRF table being associated with at least one respective VPN; attaching to each VRF table those CE routers having membership in the at least one VPN associated with the respective VRF table; and adding a CE router to a first VPN, said CE router being attached to a VRF table associated with a second VPN, said step of adding comprising: splitting said CE router from said VRF table associated with said second VPN; and in response to the existence of a VRF table being associated with said first VPN and said second VPN, attaching said new CE to said VRF table; in response to the absence of a VRF table being associated with said first VPN and said second VPN, creating a new VRF table identifying the properties of the new CE router and attaching said new CE to said created VRF table using an interface identified in the new CE router properties.