Granted Patent B2

US 12,547,440 · App. 18/205,672 · Granted Feb 10, 2026

Inventor: Chad Rosenbohm (Cedar Rapids, IA)

G06F9/45558G06F2009/45595

Abstract

Claims (49)

1 . A physical routing appliance comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory memory storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, perform the following:

responsive to connection of the physical routing appliance to a user installation, configuring the physical routing appliance to communicate with a cloud service;

initiating communication between the physical routing appliance and a cloud service to connect the physical routing appliance to the cloud service, including selecting a type of connection between the physical routing appliance and the cloud service;

responsive to connection of the physical routing appliance to the cloud service, determining whether there is a virtual private cloud for the user installation at the cloud service;

determining whether there is a virtual routing appliance for the user installation at the cloud service; and

responsive to a determination that there is a virtual routing appliance for the user installation at the cloud service, initiating a multiplexed virtual private network (VPN) communication path between the physical routing appliance and the virtual routing appliance, wherein communications between the user installation and the cloud service comprise:

at the physical routing appliance, multiplexing first system data received from the user installation for transmission to the virtual routing appliance as first multiplexed data;

at the virtual routing appliance, multiplexing second system data received from the cloud service for transmission to the physical routing appliance as second multiplexed data;

receiving the second multiplexed data from the virtual routing appliance and demultiplexing the second multiplexed data for transmission to the user installation;

receiving the first multiplexed data from the physical routing appliance and demultiplexing the second multiplexed data for transmission to the cloud service; and

creating a plurality of paths to transmit the first and second multiplexed data between the physical routing appliance and the virtual routing appliance to enable transmission of the first and second multiplexed data as multiplexed data portions without having to retransmit all of the first and second system data.

2 . The appliance of claim 1 , wherein multiplexing the first system data and multiplexing the second system data comprises, at the respective physical routing appliance and virtual routing appliance, deconstructing data received from the respective user installation and cloud service into the multiplexed data portions which are transmitted over the plurality of paths.

3 . The appliance of claim 1 , wherein the user installation is selected from the group consisting of a user device, a plurality of networked user devices, an enterprise network, and a plurality of enterprise networks.

4 . The appliance of claim 1 , wherein the type of connection between the physical routing appliance and the cloud service is selected from the group consisting of a virtual private network (VPN), a scalable zero trust protocol (ZPA), and a direct connection.

5 . The appliance of claim 4 , wherein the direct connection comprises a connection through a public communications network.

6 . The appliance of claim 1 , wherein the configuring comprises editing an existing profile for the physical routing appliance.

7 . The appliance of claim 1 , wherein the configuring comprises creating a new profile for the physical routing appliance.

8 . The appliance of claim 1 , wherein the processor further performs the following:

responsive to a determination that there is no virtual private cloud for the user installation at the cloud service, creating the virtual private cloud.

9 . The appliance of claim 1 , wherein the processor further performs the following:

responsive to a determination that there is no virtual routing appliance for the user installation at the cloud service, creating a virtual routing appliance.

10 . The appliance of claim 1 , further comprising a switch fabric for transmitting the multiplexed data portions.

11 . A computer-implemented method comprising, on a processor executing instructions stored in a non-transitory memory:

responsive to connection of the physical routing appliance to a user installation, configuring the physical routing appliance to communicate with a cloud service;

initiating communication between the physical routing appliance and a cloud service to connect the physical routing appliance to the cloud service, including selecting a type of connection between the physical routing appliance and the cloud service;

responsive to connection of the physical routing appliance to the cloud service, determining whether there is a virtual private cloud for the user installation at the cloud service;

determining whether there is a virtual routing appliance for the user installation at the cloud service; and

responsive to a determination that there is a virtual routing appliance for the user installation at the cloud service, initiating a multiplexed virtual private network (VPN) communication path between the physical routing appliance and the virtual routing appliance, wherein communications between the user installation and the cloud service comprise:

at the physical routing appliance:

multiplexing first system data received from the user installation for transmission to the virtual routing appliance as first multiplexed data;

formatting data received from the virtual routing appliance for transmission to the user installation;

at the virtual routing appliance:

multiplexing second system data received from the cloud service for transmission to the physical routing appliance as second multiplexed data;

formatting data received from the physical routing appliance for transmission to the cloud service; and

between the physical routing appliance and the virtual routing appliance:

creating a plurality of paths to transmit the first and second multiplexed data between the physical routing appliance and the virtual routing appliance to enable transmission of the first and second multiplexed data as multiplexed data portions without having to retransmit all of the first and second system data.

12 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein multiplexing the first system data and multiplexing the second system data comprises, at the respective physical routing appliance and virtual routing appliance, deconstructing data received from the respective user installation and cloud service into the multiplexed data portions which are transmitted over the plurality of paths.

13 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein the user installation is selected from the group consisting of a user device, a plurality of networked user devices, an enterprise network, and a plurality of enterprise networks.

14 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein the type of connection between the physical routing appliance and the cloud service is selected from the group consisting of a virtual private network (VPN), a scalable zero trust protocol (ZPA), and a direct connection.

15 . The computer-implemented method of claim 14 , wherein the direct connection comprises a connection through a public communications network.

16 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein the configuring comprises editing an existing profile for the physical routing appliance.

17 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein the configuring comprises creating a new profile for the physical routing appliance.

18 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , further comprising:

responsive to a determination that there is no virtual private cloud for the user installation at the cloud service, creating the virtual private cloud.

19 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , further comprising:

responsive to a determination that there is no virtual routing appliance for the user installation at the cloud service, creating a virtual routing appliance.

20 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , further comprising providing a switch fabric for transmitting the multiplexed data portions.

Assignments (4)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (14)