Patent ID: 8051177

Claim:
A method for interfacing a virtual private network (VPN) with a network having a different addressing scheme, the method comprising: at a VPN media proxy having a communications interface for communicating with a first network and a second network, wherein the first network comprises a plurality of interconnected VPNs, the second network is connected to the plurality of interconnected VPNs via the first network, and the second network uses an Internet protocol (IP) addressing scheme different from a private IP network addressing scheme used by one of the plurality of interconnected VPNs: providing a plurality of virtual routing functions, respective ones of the plurality of virtual routing functions being connected to respective ones of the plurality of interconnected VPNs such that each virtual routing function has an address in a private IP address space of a respective one of the plurality of interconnected VPNs; translating a destination IP address of a packet in accordance with the IP network addressing scheme of the second network; and forwarding the packet from a source IP address in the one of the plurality of interconnected VPNs to the destination IP address in the second network.