Patent ID: 8095668

Claim:
A method of controlling one of a plurality of middleboxes in a communications network, each of the middleboxes being connected to a plurality of entities in a respective one of a plurality of address realms of the communications network, said method comprising the steps of: (i) receiving a control message at a middlebox-identity-providing node in the communications network, said control message comprising information about one of the entities in the communications network; (ii) using the middlebox identity providing node to determine the identity of a first middlebox connected to said one entity in its respective one of the plurality of address realms; (iii) sending said identity to a middlebox control node in the communications network in order to enable said middlebox control node to send middlebox control messages to said first middlebox, said middlebox control node being located in a different address realm than that of said one of the entities; and wherein the middlebox-identity-providing node is separate from the middlebox control node and is located in a control signal path from said one of the entities to the middlebox control node.