| CPC H04L 12/465 (2013.01) [G06F 9/4401 (2013.01); G06F 9/4416 (2013.01); G06F 21/575 (2013.01); H04L 9/08 (2013.01); H04L 12/4633 (2013.01); H04L 45/22 (2013.01); H04L 45/28 (2013.01); H04L 45/302 (2013.01); H04L 45/64 (2013.01); H04L 63/02 (2013.01); H04L 63/0218 (2013.01); H04L 63/0236 (2013.01); H04L 63/0254 (2013.01); H04L 63/0263 (2013.01); H04L 63/0272 (2013.01); H04L 12/4641 (2013.01)] | 20 Claims |

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1. A network system operating a virtual network over the top of one or more underlying packet networks, the network system comprising:
a plurality of endpoint devices;
a plurality of access point servers including two or more access point servers granted access to the virtual network; and
a set of one or more control servers configured to
maintain a central device registry of information for each endpoint device and access point server that is allowed to access the virtual network,
establish respective secure management tunnels with each of the endpoint devices and each of the access point servers that are granted access to the virtual network, and
for each of multiple devices of the endpoint devices that are granted access to the virtual network,
dynamically determine, based at least on information for a particular device of the multiple devices and information for one or more of the access point servers, a ranked list, for that particular device, of peer access point servers selected from the access point servers that are granted access to the virtual network, and
configure that particular device, over the secure management tunnel established with that particular device, with the ranked list of peer access point servers and tunnel configuration information to build virtual network tunnels to the peer access point servers;
wherein the multiple devices of the endpoint devices are each configured to
automatically seek establishment of a secure management tunnel with the set of one or more control servers,
upon establishment of the secure management tunnel with the set of one or more control servers, configure themselves based on a configuration supplied over the secure management tunnel and comprising the ranked list of peer access point servers and tunnel configuration information, and
join the virtual network by establishing one or more tunnels, over the top of the one or more underlying packet networks, to one or more of the peer access point servers from the configuration.
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