Patent ID: 7277953

Claim:
A method for partitioning network data services among multiple subscribers, to allow multiple source subscribers to selectively access a plurality of resources that provide data services and to which access is controlled by a plurality of destination subscribers, each destination subscriber being located at a destination address, the method comprising: (a) defining a plurality of independent networks, each independent network comprising a set of access ports and a unique set of destination addresses, having data associated therewith that indicates whether the source subscriber and the destination subscriber are identical and data associated therewith that indicates whether the destination subscriber controls access to resources connected to that independent network and being logically separate from all other independent networks so that no information can pass from one independent network to another independent network; (b) when a source subscriber with an identity makes a request to use a first independent network to connect to a destination subscriber and access a resource, using the identity to determine whether the source subscriber has permission to use the first independent network; (c) if the source subscriber has permission to use the first independent network, accessing the data associated with the first independent network and using the data to determine whether the source subscriber and the destination subscriber are identical and, if so, allowing the source subscriber to access resources to which that destination subscriber controls access; (d) if the source subscriber and the destination subscriber are not identical, accessing the data associated with the first independent network and using that data to identify which of the source subscriber or a destination subscriber controls access to the resource and, when that data indicates that a destination subscriber controls access to the resource, using information in the request to identify a destination subscriber, access permissions and a response port; (e) if the data accessed in step (d) indicates that a source subscriber controls access to the resource, using the identity to determine whether the source subscriber can access the resource; and (f) selectively providing the source subscriber access to the resource based on one of the access permissions identified in step (d) and the determination in step (e).