Patent ID: 8571040

Claim:
A network device for communicating over a network including a plurality of network nodes, each network node being associated with a building block controller, the network device comprising: a transceiver configured to communicate over the network; and a processor configured to execute the following steps: receiving, by the transceiver, a request to configure a first packet-based end-to-end service; identifying a set of one or more building block codes for performing the first packet-based end-to-end service; determining a network flow upon the transceiver receiving a first packet of a connection of the first end-to-end service, the network flow determination including: selecting network nodes of the plurality of network nodes for use as network hops for the connection; and identifying building block codes of the set of one of more building block codes to be used by each building block controller associated with each selected network node; communicating, by the transceiver, the network flow determination to the building block controller associated with the identified network node; determining whether the building block controllers corresponding to the selected network nodes already have the identified building block codes; and in response to determining that a building block controller does not have an identified building block code, obtaining, by the transceiver, the identified building block code and sending, by the transceiver, the identified building block code to the building block controller determined as not having the identified building block code.