Abstract: According to one embodiment of the invention, a method for securely extending a private network to include one or more remote access points (APs) comprises a first operation of establishing a secure communication path with a destination device. Then, the information received from a source device is prepared for transmission to the destination device. This involves the received information undergoing Layer 3 (L3) encryption prior to encapsulation into a message for transmission to the destination device if the received information constitutes control information. If the received information constitutes data, the received information optionally undergoes L3 encryption, since the payload data might be already L2 encrypted by the source device, prior to encapsulation into the message.