Patent attributes
A method, apparatus, and system are described for a route server that connects network users to network providers. The route server may connect to network elements, including routers, from a plurality of Internet network service providers (ISP) to the network elements of a plurality of users through the route server. The route server also may make routing decisions for the plurality of users and the plurality of ISPs and is programmed to maintain multiple views of the routing table as well as implement multiple BGP instances, each instance representing different autonomous systems, in a single instance of the route server. The route server also may match a first user to one or more of the ISPs based on criteria including not only the best possible routes of each ISP but a full listing of all possible routes to a destination address from each ISP matching the user's criteria in order to construct a route table to get IP packets of a user to a destination address.
