Patent ID: 8340077

Claim:
An operations service server, for providing management of operations services of networks, the operations service server comprising: a network interface configured to facilitate communication with an operations switch and a customer network; a processor; and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: receive, via a first communication link facilitated by the network interface, a request from the operations switch associated with a first network address for an operations service, the request specifying the operations service to provide to a second network address associated with the customer network, the request including the second network address; configure the operations service per the request; establish, via the network interface, a second communication link to the customer network at the second network address, wherein the second communication link is an IP based point-to-point link between the second network address and the network interface that remains active until a request for termination of the operations service is received by the operations service server, and the second network address is an IP address; and provide the operations service to the customer network at the second network address over the second communication link.