US Patent 10523631 Communities of interest in a cloud exchange

In general, techniques are described for interconnecting, within a cloud exchange, multiple entities in a community of interest by which the multiple entities can interact as peers over a private, multi-party connectivity service for direct traffic exchange. In one example, a cloud exchange includes a layer three (L3) autonomous system located within a data center, wherein the L3 autonomous system is configured: with a plurality of attachment circuits between the cloud exchange and respective networks co-located within the data center, wherein each of the networks is associated with a different customers of a cloud exchange provider for the cloud exchange; with an Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IP-VPN) for a community of interest that includes each of the plurality of customers; and to switch, using the IP-VPN and based on destination addresses of packets received from any of the networks, the packets to any other of the networks.