Patent ID: 7877496

Claim:
A system for providing an application level of service over a network, the system comprising: a receiver unit, operable to receive network traffic, wherein the network traffic: comprises application data relating to an application; comprises protocol data; and is configured to be sent over the network to an intended consumer, the intended consumer being a consumer of network resources provided by a service provider; a parser unit, operable to derive the application and the intended consumer from the network traffic at least in part as a function of the protocol data; a traffic management unit, operable to: determine whether an application registration relationship exists between the application and the service provider such that the application is a registered application; determine, when the application is a registered application, whether an application service level relationship exists between the registered application and the intended consumer, wherein the application service level relationship defines at least one traffic handling criterion; and formulate, when the application service level relationship exists, traffic handling instructions as a function of the traffic handling criterion; and a routing unit, operable to route at least a portion of the network traffic over a communication link as a function of the traffic handling instructions.