Patent ID: 7747728

Claim:
A method comprising: maintaining, within a router, a data structure that associates routes through a network with access information for retrieving interface parameters from an external service management system, wherein the data structure associates service profile identifiers corresponding with respective services provided by the router with the access information; receiving, with the router, a routing protocol packet from a second router, wherein the routing protocol packet includes routing information that specifies at least one route through the network; selecting, from the data structure, the access information associated with the route specified by the routing information, wherein selecting the access information comprises associating the route with one of the service profile identifiers without specifying an individual user and retrieving access information for the respective service provided by the router based on the service profile identifier associated with the route; querying the external service management system with the selected access information to obtain interface parameters for instantiating an interface; instantiating at least one interface within the router based on the interface parameters obtained from the external service management system; and forwarding data of a data flow associated with the route specified by the routing information with the at least one interface of the router that was instantiated using the interface parameters obtained from the external service management system.