Patent ID: 8340107

Claim:
A network terminating device adapted for use in an access network, the network supporting virtual local area networks (VLANs) on network and subscriber sides of the device and facilitating communication between service providers, connected to the network, and a subscriber, wherein: in the access network, different services from different ones of the service providers are delivered to the subscriber as traffic over the network flowing to the subscriber, the traffic being delivered through one or more ports on the device to the subscriber, and with each one of the ports having a physical port number; and the VLANs separate traffic from different ones of the service providers, each of the VLANs having an associated VLAN numbering with the VLAN numbering on the network and subscriber sides having a structure comprising a port number part and a service number part, wherein the service number part on the network and subscriber sides comprises a service number differentiating the different services provided by at least one of the service providers while the port number part comprises a port number on the network side and has the port number stripped on the subscriber side; the device comprising: means for translating the VLAN numbering appearing in the traffic on the network side and flowing in a direction of the subscriber side by stripping the port number from the port number part but preserving the service number in the service number part so as to define the VLAN numbering on the subscriber side; and a separate physical one of the ports through which the services are to be delivered to the subscriber side and which corresponds with the port number in the VLAN numbering on the network side.