A packet switching system for switching packets over corporate networks and the Internet using Internet Protocol (IP) suite of protocols is provided with an encryption detecting unit that determines whether at least a section of a portion of an incoming packet allocated for Internet Protocol (IP) address fields comprises encrypted data. If the encrypted data is detected, a decrypting unit decrypts the encrypted data. A packet identifying unit detects a virtual connection identifier (VCID) marker indicating that a VCID is provided in the portion of the incoming packet allocated for IP address fields. A data extracting unit extracts the VCID from the decrypted data. For example, the data extracting unit may extracts original source and destination IP addresses, or a Quality of Service (QoS) field for identifying parameters of Quality of Service. A route processing engine determines a route for forwarding the packet, and a packet forwarding unit places the packet into a queue for transmission. An encrypting unit encrypts the VCID of packets transmitted to a network that uses virtual connection identifiers for switching packets.