A method and an apparatus that reduce the burden on routers by removing the aggregation and physical Wide Area Network (WAN) interface functions from the router are provided. The aggregation and physical Wide Area Network interface transparently forwards traffic and routing information to and from the WAN without becoming a router. The disclosed forwarding technique and apparatus is applicable to IP protocol as well as other protocols. As provided, the routing device is connected to a forwarding device via the Local Area Network (LAN) and the IP Multiplexer forwards data packets to one or more physical WAN links.