Patent ID: 7085277

Claim:
A method of restricting packet transport through a communication network to provide restricted connectivity to specific local area network (LAN) customers by administratively dividing the network utilizing internetworking service management, the method comprising: configuring, by a service provider operating as a network administrator, a customer object for each of said specific local area network customers, each customer object having assigned thereto a portion of said network; creating a plurality of realm objects, each realm object representing an independent forward realm; allocating each realm object to one of the customer objects, each customer object being allocated at least one realm object; creating a plurality of service interface (SI) objects, each SI object corresponding to a service interface; allocating each SI object to one of the realm objects such that each realm object is allocated at least two SI objects; and providing at least one route server for each realm object, the route server having knowledge of SI objects limited to SI objects allocated to the realm of the route server.