Patent ID: 8050278

Claim:
A method for a host computer communicatively linked to a local area network and a virtual circuit interface device to act as a proxy between devices on the local area network and devices on a virtual circuit network, the method comprising the steps of receiving a first request from a first application running on a first local area network device to set up a first virtual circuit connection with a first virtual circuit network device; passing the first request to the first virtual circuit network device; receiving a first answer from the first virtual circuit network device that includes a first virtual circuit identification; storing a first mapping between a first network address of the first local area network device and the first virtual circuit identification in a table; receiving a second request from a second application running on a second local area network device to set up a second virtual circuit connection with a second virtual circuit network device; passing the request to the second virtual circuit network device; receiving a second answer from the second virtual circuit network device that includes a second virtual circuit identification; storing a second mapping between a second network address of the second local area network device and the second virtual circuit identification in the table; and using the table to map data received through the virtual circuit interface device to the first local area network device and the second local area network device.