Patent ID: 8676944

Claim:
A network model for managing a service, comprising: an end service domain that associates the service with an end service provider, the end service domain comprising: a plurality of wholesale service domains, respective ones of the plurality of wholesale service domains comprising at least one network that provides traffic transport for the end service domain; a plurality of gateways, wherein at least a first one of the plurality of gateways couples one of the plurality of wholesale service domains to another one of the wholesale service domains and is configured to perform protocol translation on traffic passing between the coupled wholesale service domains, and wherein at least a second one of the plurality of gateways is configured to couple a user to the end service domain and is further configured to communicate with the user by a protocol associated with the service; a process domain that provides an abstract representation of applications provided by the end service domain; a service management system that is communicatively coupled to the end service domain, the service management system comprising: a plurality of software objects that represent resources in the end service domain for providing the service; and a policy database that comprises rules for associating requirements of the service with resources in the end service domain.