Patent ID: 7782858

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, at a particular node, authenticated site data that can be trusted and that includes; site identifier data that indicates a unique site identifier (ID) for each site that comprises one or more network nodes among a plurality of sites for a first network that is under administrative control of a customer and that uses an internal routing protocol, wherein a plurality of edge sites of the plurality of sites are separate from each other and connected to a second network that is under separate administrative control of at least one network service provider, and address block data that indicates a set of one or more network addresses that are associated with each site of the plurality of sites; identifying a route between the nodes; designating a trust level for the route based on the authenticated site data; discounting an external routing protocol message after comparing it to the authenticated site data; receiving from a local site connected to the particular node an internal routing protocol message that includes data that indicates a change in a network address reachable at the local site; generating an outbound external routing protocol message that includes data that indicates the change in the address reachable, and data that indicates a local site ID that is associated with the local site, wherein the generating further comprises determining whether the internal routing protocol message includes data that indicates a local source site ID that is different from the local site ID, and wherein if it is determined that the internal routing protocol message includes data that indicates a local source site ID that is different from the local site ID, then generating the outbound external routing protocol message that includes data that indicates the local source site ID; and sending the outbound external routing protocol message over the second network.