| CPC H04L 63/029 (2013.01) [H04L 12/4633 (2013.01); H04L 45/02 (2013.01); H04L 45/58 (2013.01)] | 20 Claims |

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1. A method of creating a secure network or updating the secure network, the method comprising connecting a first router node to the network;
discovering, using the first router node, a link to an adjacent router node within the network using a first interface;
receiving, at the first router node via the discovered link using the first interface, a first loopback address for the adjacent router node, wherein the first loopback address is an address for a security module in the adjacent router node and is a network wide unique address;
creating a first tunnel between a security module in the first router node and the received first loopback address;
receiving, at the first router node via the first tunnel, a second loopback address for the adjacent router node using a second interface, wherein the second loopback address is an address for a secure access module in the adjacent router node and is a network wide unique address;
creating a second tunnel between a secure access module in the first router node and the received second loopback address;
repeating the discovering, receiving and creating steps for each router node which is adjacent to the first router node;
storing information relating to the discovered links between the first router node and each adjacent router node in a link discovery routing table;
storing the first loopback address for each adjacent router node in a security routing table; and
storing the second loopback address for each adjacent router node in a secure access routing table;
whereby each discovered link, first tunnel and second tunnel provide separate connections between the first router node and each adjacent router node,
wherein the first interface and the second interface are different.
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