Patent ID: 7697439

Claim:
A network communication apparatus operating as an ingress provider edge router and comprising: one or more network interfaces; one or more processors coupled to the network interfaces for receiving packet flows therefrom; a computer-readable medium comprising one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the steps of: receiving first network route information from an originating customer edge router by the ingress provider edge router, wherein the first network route information identifies a route from an end point associated with the originating customer edge router to the ingress provider edge router, wherein the first network route information comprises a cost metric value comprising a first transit cost for the route; storing the cost metric value for the route in a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) cost community attribute; sending a route announcement message to an egress provider edge router by the ingress provider edge router, wherein the route announcement message includes the route identified in the first network route information and the cost community attribute with the cost metric value for the route; determining a second transit cost from the egress provider edge router to the ingress provider edge router; adding at least the second transit cost from the egress provider edge router to the ingress provider edge router with the first transit cost to obtain a total transit cost from the egress provider edge router to an endpoint associated with the originating customer edge router; determining, based at least in part upon the total transit cost from the egress provider edge router to the endpoint associated with the originating customer edge, a best path from the egress provider edge router to the endpoint associated with the originating customer edge router.