US Patent 12089295 Multiple virtual interfaces through a single physical interface

A method for providing multiple virtual interfaces over a single physical interface of a gateway device includes configuring a first physical Wi-Fi interface with a first virtual interface for a WAN side and a second virtual interface for a LAN side by assigning SSIDs to the first virtual interface and the second virtual interface, and storing the SSIDs as virtual interface configuration data. The method further includes determining whether a packet is received over the first virtual interface or the second virtual interface based on the virtual interface configuration data, and performing virtual input processing to manage flow of the packet to a router, depending on the input virtual interface, by tagging the packet as WAN traffic associated with the first virtual interface based on the WAN SSID or as LAN traffic associated with the second virtual interface based on the LAN SSID, and forwarding the packet to the router.