Patent ID: 7471631

Claim:
An apparatus of designating virtual sites using policy information in multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) networks, the apparatus comprising: a data packet receiving part, which receives a virtual private network (VPN) data packet from a detected line interface of a plurality of line interfaces; an interface managing part, which manages the plurality of line interfaces; an operator command processing part, which sets a VPN routing and forwarding table (VRF) corresponding to each respective line interface by processing commands related to virtual sites and stores information regarding the VRF in an interface table; the interface table, which stores the kinds and values of one or more policy properties for dividing the virtual sites that are designated for the detected line interface, and maps multiple VRF tables to corresponding respective virtual sites in response to the commands related to the respective virtual sites, which are output from the operator command processing part; a plurality of VRF tables, which stores routing information and forwarding information for each site of the VPN and all the virtual sites; a VPN group processing part, which extracts information regarding a VRF table corresponding to the detected line interface from the interface table and performs general VPN data processing if virtual sites are not designated for the detected line interface; a virtual site processing part, which finds a VRF table that corresponds to policy information of the packet from the interface table if virtual sites are designated for the detected line interface; a forwarding processing part, which obtains an output line interface by looking up the VRF table found by the virtual site processing part; and a data packet transmitting part, which forwards the packet through the output line interface.