SAVVIS Communications In the Virtual Router (VR) model of Provider Provisioned VPNs multiple VRs may be connected using tunnels over an existing IP network, such as IPSec or MPLS based tunnels. In the VR model these tunnels often run routing protocols such as RIP or OSPF in order to distribute route reachability information. This memo presents methods for assigning a meaningful metric to these tunnel links that can be used by such routing protocols.