Patent ID: 7391778

Claim:
A label switching router having an internal channel share function over an asynchronous transfer mode, comprising: an ingress forwarding engine adapted to set up a label switched path by using a signaling protocol, extract an egress forwarding engine number of an egress forwarding engine and an egress channel identifier that identifies an egress channel, allocate an extension tag that comprises said egress forwarding engine number and said egress channel identifier, search a previously-set internal channel that connects the ingress forwarding engine to the egress forwarding engine, form a forwarding information base/label information base that comprises the extension tag and a previously-set internal channel identifier that identifies said previously-set internal channel, add a header having the previously-set internal channel identifier and the extension tag to a received Internet Protocol (IP) packet by referring to the forwarding information base/label information base, and forward the IP packet; and a merging unit adapted to receive label switched path set information from the ingress forwarding engine, form an extension information base/merging table wherein the egress channel identifier is mapped to the extension tag, perform merging upon receiving the IP packet having the extension tag, extract the extension tag, map the extension tag to the egress channel identifier, and forward the IP packet to the egress channel.