Abstract: In an embodiment, a method of signaling status at a routing device is provided. In this method, the routing device establishes an inter-chassis control plane channel session with a remote routing device. Here, the routing device and the remote routing device are linked to a multi-homed routing device. The routing device then synchronizes with the remote routing device by way of the inter-chassis control plane channel session to identify a state of a link from the routing device to the multi-homed routing device. The state of the link is thereafter advertised by way of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). Additionally, a method of discovering inter-chassis communication peers via BGP between the first and remote routing devices is provided.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program product for providing secure multipoint Internet Protocol Virtual Private Networks (IPVPNs) is presented. A packet lookup is performed in order to determine a next hop. A VPN label is pushed on the packet, as is an IP tunnel header. Group encryption through the use of DGVPN is further utilized. In such a manner secure connectivity and network partitioning are provided in a single solution.

Abstract: An MPLS router operable for labeled switch path (LSP) operation defines a compression index for identifying a decompression context between other MPLS LSP routers. The compression index allows a multipoint-to-point link between MPLS routers, thereby avoiding an exhaustive mesh of point-to-point links between each of the MPLS routers. The originator ID identifies each of the multipoint originating endpoints at a common destination, and maintains the context of each compressed header to match incoming compressed headers to the corresponding header values. The originator ID, typically the IP address of the originator, operates as the compression index on the multipoint-to-point connection, operable to distinguish multiple originators of the multipoint-to-point connection and provide header compression for each.