Importance

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Abstract

A method and system for enabling interconnection of VPNs is disclosed. An interconnection device manages an interconnection process at one or more facilities including, for example, a gateway device. The gateway device has information relating to a plurality of VPNs, and may facilitate interconnection between devices on at least two of the VPNs by determining that one device is in fact a member of a first one of the VPNs, and by forwarding connection parameters of the first VPN to the second VPN on an as-needed basis. In this way, the gateway allows interconnection without the need for a completely centralized decision-making process, and does so independently of the type of device and/or VPN(s) being used. Moreover, the gateway may implement only those VPN parameters needed by both VPNs to communicate with one another with a desired level of security, thereby simplifying the routing and forwarding processes associated with the actual communication occurring via the interconnection. The information related to the plurality of VPNs and their respective member devices may be stored in a mapping table at the gateway, and identification parameters of a device seeking interconnection and/or associated VPN parameters may be verified by the use of digital certificates.

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First Claim