Patent ID: 7509373

Claim:
A method of providing communications services, comprising: receiving a request for data; assessing in real-time an availability of network routing to fulfill the request; assessing in real-time an availability of network bandwidth to fulfill the request; ascertaining a preferred scenario of segmentation, dispersion, and assemblage of electronic data to fulfill the request; sending a reservation to reserve a routing path, the reservation instructing a device to only accept packets of data destined for that routing path, the reservation specifying a window of time in which the packets of data are received and processed; receiving a data stream to fulfill the request; determining a subcontracted processing service is required from a different service provider; recursively segmenting the data stream into segments, such that a characteristic of a preceding segment determines how a current segment is segmented; grouping together individual packets of data as a new segment that requires the subcontracted processing service; subcontracting the new segment via a network to the different service provider to receive the subcontracted processing service; receiving a result of the processing service; assembling formatted data comprising the result of the subcontracted processing service and at least one of the recursively segmented segments; and communicating the formatted data to fulfill the request.