Patent ID: 8547976

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a first means for receiving a context label and a forwarding label from a router, and for storing the context label and the forwarding label in memory, wherein the first means for receiving and the router are coupled to a LAN, the router is an upstream router to the first means for receiving, and the context label distinguishes the router that is coupled to the LAN from other routers coupled to the LAN; a second means for receiving a first incoming labeled data packet, wherein the first incoming labeled data packet comprises a first data packet and one or more first labels; a third means for creating a first outgoing labeled data packet, wherein the third means for creating creates the first outgoing labeled data packet by swapping the one or more first labels of the first incoming labeled data packet with the context label and the forwarding label, and the first outgoing labeled data packet comprises the first data packet, the context label, and the forwarding label; and a fourth means for transmitting the first outgoing labeled data packet to another router via the LAN, wherein the LAN is configured to generate a copy of the first outgoing labeled data packet and transmit the copy to the router.