Patent ID: 7792097

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a network device; and a processor included in the network device and configured to: analyze data received by the network device as a first data packet and identify a data characteristic included as part of the received data, where the data characteristic is identified independently of an ingress port on the network device, and where the received data originates from an endpoint and does not include any virtual network identification; depacketize the first data packet, where the data characteristic is identified from data decoded from the first data packet; generate a tag that identifies the data characteristic in response to analyzing the received data; create an Internet Protocol (IP) packet including the tag and the received data that was analyzed, where the IP packet is created within the network device, and where the IP packet comprises the decoded data repacketized as a second data packet; determine a forwarding identifier associated with the IP packet, where the forwarding identifier is determined according to the data characteristic identified in the tag, and where the forwarding identifier associates the IP packet with a virtual network; translate the tag into a multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) label, where the forwarding identifier comprises the MPLS label, and where the MPLS label is included in the IP packet; and forward the IP packet to the virtual network according to the forwarding identifier.