Patent ID: 7003481

Claim:
A method comprising: providing first one or more application service contracts by a first application service provider (Provider) to a community of one or more subscriber application routers (SAR), said first one or more application service contracts specifying subscriptions to first one or more application services provided by first one or more servers of said first Provider, said first one or more application service contracts are provided by a community of one or more provider application routers (PARs); automatically provisioning first one or more application delivery transports to facilitate delivery of said first one or more application services provided by said first one or more servers of said first Provider to clients of said Subscriber in accordance with said first one or more application service contracts, wherein said automatically provisioning first one or more application delivery transports comprises identifying, by a first SAR of said community of one or more SARs, a preferred PAR of said community of one or more PARs, and negotiating a subnet between said first SAR and said preferred PAR; providing second one or more application service contracts by a second application service provider (Provider) to the community of one or more subscriber application routers (SAR), said second one or more application service contracts specifying subscriptions to second one or more application services provided by second one or more servers of said second Provider; automatically provisioning second one or more application delivery transports to facilitate delivery of said second one or more application services provided by said second one or more servers of said second Provider to clients of said Subscriber in accordance with said second one or more application service contracts; and delivering selected ones of said first and second application services provided by said first and second one or more servers of said first and second Providers through selected ones of said first and second application delivery transports respectively.