At&t Intellectual Property I, LP

At+t Corp.

Mateusz Szela

John Babu Medamana

Stephen L Holmgren

David Kinsky

Christopher J Chase

Jeewan P Ramsaroop

John T Mulligan

Diana L Toll

Don J Moloney

Ron R Kulper

Vatsal Parikh

Jonathan Pang

A system for indirect border gateway routing comprising a provider edge router; at least one virtual routing and forwarding instance in communication with the provider edge router, each virtual routing and forwarding instance including a route target; a pointer identification list in communication with the provider edge router, the pointer identification list containing at least one route target associated with a virtual routing and forwarding instance; and a virtual routing and forwarding import instance adapted to receive a route from the provider edge router, the route including a pointer identification directing the virtual routing and forwarding import instance to scan the pointer identification list for the route target associated with the plural virtual routing and forwarding instance, and wherein the virtual routing and forwarding import instance is further adapted to import the route to the at least one virtual routing and forwarding instance having a route target on the pointer identification list.

Border gateway protocol multipath scaled network address translation system

An Ethernet Metropolitan Area Network provides connectivity to one or more customer premises to packet-bases services, such as ATM, Frame Relay, or IP while advantageously providing a mechanism for assuring security and regulation of customer traffic. Upon receipt of each customer-generated information frame, an ingress Multi-Service Platform (MSP) 'tags' the frame with a customer descriptor that specifically identifies the recipient customer. In practice, the MSP tags each frame by overwriting the Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) identifier with the routing descriptor. Using the customer descriptor in each frame, a recipient Provider Edge Router (PER) or ATM switch can map the information as appropriate to direct the information to the specific customer. In addition, the customer descriptor may also include Quality of Service (QoS) allowing the recipient Provider Edge Router (PER) or ATM switch to vary the QoS level accordingly.

Technique for ethernet access to packet-based services

An Ethernet Metropolitan Area Network () provides connectivity to one or more customer premises () to packet-bases services, such as ATM, Frame Relay, or IP while advantageously providing a mechanism for assuring security and regulation of customer traffic. Upon receipt of each customer-generated information frame (), an ingress Multi-Service Platform (MSP) () 'tags' the frame with a customer descriptor () that specifically identifies the recipient customer. In practice, the MSP tags each frame by overwriting the Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) identifier () with the routing descriptor. Using the customer descriptor in each frame, a recipient Provider Edge Router (PER) () or ATM switch can map the information as appropriate to direct the information to the specific customer. In addition, the customer descriptor () may also include Quality of Service (QoS) allowing the recipient Provider Edge Router (PER) () or ATM switch to vary the QoS level accordingly.

Technique for Ethernet access to packet-based services

An Ethernet Metropolitan Area Network provides connectivity to one or more customer premises to packet-based services, such as ATM, Frame Relay, or IP, while advantageously providing a mechanism for assuring security and regulation of customer traffic. Upon receipt of each customer-generated information frame, an ingress Multi-Service Platform (MSP) 'tags' the frame with a customer descriptor that specifically identifies the recipient customer. In practice, the MSP tags each frame by overwriting the Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) identifier with the customer descriptor. Using the customer descriptor in each frame, a recipient Provider Edge Router (PER) or ATM switch can map the information as appropriate to direct the information to the specific customer at its receiving site. In addition, the customer descriptor may also include Quality of Service (QoS) information, allowing the recipient Provider Edge Router (PER) or ATM switch to afford the appropriate QoS level accordingly.

A network interworking facility () advantageously interworks Ethernet and ATM networks () having different protocols to permit the data from in one network to pass to the other and vice versa without the need for the source in to account for the protocol of the destination. Upon receipt of an information frame from the source, the interworking facility forms a second frame of a format compatible with the destination network and including the information payload from the first frame. The interworking facility also maps the destination address incorporated in the origin frame to a corresponding destination address of a format compatible with the destination network to facilitate forwarding of the second frame to the destination.

Ethernet-to-ATM interworking technique

A network interworking facility () advantageously interworks Ethernet and ATM networks () having different protocols to permit the data from in one network to pass to the other and vice versa without the need for the source in to account for the protocol of the destination. Upon receipt of an information frame from the source, the Interworking facility forms a second frame of a format compatible with the destination network and including the information payload from the first frame. The interworking facility also maps the destination address incorporated in the origin frame to a corresponding destination address of a format compatible with the destination network to facilitate forwarding of the second frame to the destination.

Interworking of first and second networks () is accomplished by an interworking facility () that serves to map the destination address in first frames received from the first network into second destinations addresses compatible with the second network. To conserve such mapping the assignments, the first network encapsulates information frames () received from one or more sites associated with a first customer into jumbo frames () that have a generic address associated with that customer. At the interworking facility, the individual frames are stripped from the jumbo frame and routed to corresponding destinations in the second network.

Ethernet-to-ATM interworking that conserves VLAN assignments

An Ethernet Metropolitan Area Network () provides connectivity to one or more customer premises () to packet-bases services, such as ATM, Frame Relay, or IP while advantageously providing a mechanism for assuring security and regulation of customer traffic. Upon receipt of each customer-generated information frame (), an ingress Multi-Service Platform (MSP) () 'tags' the frame with a customer descriptor (') that specifically identifies the recipient customer. In practice, the MSP tags each frame by overwriting the Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) identifier () with the customer descriptor. Using the customer descriptor in each frame, a recipient Provider Edge Router (PER) () or ATM switch can map the information as appropriate to direct the information to the specific customer at its receiving site. In addition, the customer descriptor (&#x2032;) may also include Quality of Service (QoS) information, allowing the recipient Provider Edge Router (PER) () or ATM switch to afford the appropriate QoS level accordingly.

An Ethernet Metropolitan Area Network () provides connectivity to one or more customer premises () to packet-based services, such as ATM, Frame Relay, or IP, while advantageously providing a mechanism for assuring security and regulation of customer traffic. Upon receipt of each customer-generated information frame (), an ingress Multi-Service Platform (MSP) () 'tags' the frame with a customer descriptor (') that specifically identifies the recipient customer. In practice, the MSP tags each frame by overwriting the Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) identifier () with the customer descriptor. Using the customer descriptor in each frame, a recipient Provider Edge Router (PER) () or ATM switch can map the information as appropriate to direct the information to the specific customer at its receiving site. In addition, the customer descriptor (&#x2032;) may also include Quality of Service (QoS) information, allowing the recipient Provider Edge Router (PER) () or ATM switch to afford the appropriate QoS level accordingly. Each Ethernet switch may advantageously overwrite the VLAN identifier at an incoming port with a second tag associated with an egress port to increase the scale associated with single switch.

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Hillsborough, NJ, United States of America

Mateusz Szela