Patent ID: 8300529

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a service traffic identification module operable to identify, in communication traffic being transferred through a communication network, service traffic associated with a service that is accessible through the communication network and provided by a service provider that is controlled independently of the communication network, the service comprising a service registered with a services registry; a traffic monitor operatively coupled to the service traffic identification module and operable to perform monitoring of the identified service traffic; and an interface, operatively coupled to the service traffic identification module, to receive, from a services portal comprising the services registry, information associated with the service and information associated with a user system that accesses the service through the services registry, the service traffic identification module establishing, when the information associated with the service and the information associated with the user system are received from the services portal, a monitoring session for monitoring use of the service by the user system, at least one of the service traffic identification module, the traffic monitor, and the interface being implemented using hardware.