Importance

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Abstract

A new directory service is established for a peer router receiving a data packet from an end station on a local area network connected to a port of the peer router, the peer router hereinafter being referred to as the source router. The data packet is addressed to a destination address. The source router determines that the data packet is to be encapsulated as an encapsulated packet, and the encapsulated packet routed by a peer-to-peer protocol to a destination router. The destination router then transmits the packet onto a local area network to the destination address. The source router locates the proper peer destination router by use of a database. The database is maintained on a server, where the database has entries for destination address, and an entry for a particular destination address gives the address of a peer router capable of routing a packet to that particular destination address. The database is populated by peer routers updating the database with information concerning the destination address which the peer routers can reach. The database on the server is interrogated by the source router to learn the address of a destination peer router, and an encapsulated packet is then transmitted onto a connectionless network for transmission to the destination router. The peer-to-peer routing protocol may be DLSw protocol. The database may be maintained in accordance with the X.500 directory standard. The database may be interrogated using the lightweight data access protocol (LDAP).

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