Patent ID: 7269176

Claim:
A communications arrangement comprising: one or more Local Area Networks (LANs); one or more gateway network elements connected to each LAN; and one or more further network elements which, together with the one or more gateway network elements, form at least a part of a routing area, the one or more gateway network elements providing access to its respective LAN and acting as an interface between the one or more further network elements and the one or more LANs, wherein the one or more further network elements each comprise an intermediate system (IS) according to IS-IS protocol, and the one or more gateway network elements and the one or more further network elements are configured to make the one or more further network elements appear as end systems as far as the rest of the communications arrangement is concerned, each further network element appearing to each other further network element as an IS within the routing area, the end systems being made known to the rest of the communications arrangement by link state protocol packets generated by the one or more gateway network elements.