Architecture

The VPN technology is much more complex than the P2P technology. VPN implementation requires construction of network connections between users, which includes network topology planning, route calculation, and maintenance of VPN users joining or leaving. The VPN architecture comprises the following parts:

• VPN tunnels

  • Establishment of tunnels

  • Management of tunnels

• VPN management

  • VPN configuration management

  • VPN member management
  • VPN attribute management: management of attributes of multiple VPNs on provider edges (PEs) and differentiation of VPN address spaces

• VPN signaling protocol

  • Exchange and share of VPN resources between customer edges (CEs) on a VPN

  • VPN member discovery in some applications