Patent ID: 8379656

Claim:
A method for auto-provisioning circuits to interconnect private Ethernet networks using an Ethernet exchange platform, the method comprising: providing templates to enable multiple Ethernet service providers to become qualified and participate in the Ethernet exchange platform configured to provide a many-to-many layer 2 Network-to-Network Interface (NNI) to enable the multiple carriers to connect to the Ethernet exchange platform and be interconnected with other carriers also connected to the Ethernet exchange platform; providing a web portal to enable the Ethernet service providers to offer their Ethernet services to other Ethernet service providers, the Ethernet services including lit building information, and capacity and bandwidth information, wherein the information is aggregated and stored in a relational database; based on two Ethernet service providers having a service agreement related to a request for quote (RFQ), populating fields of a provision request using information from the RFQ and information related to the two Ethernet service providers from the relational database, wherein the RFQ and a response to the RFQ are generated using the web portal; and provisioning one or more circuits in the Ethernet exchange platform based on the fields of the provisioning request to interconnect private Ethernet networks of the two Ethernet service providers.