Patent ID: 7117526

Claim:
A method for dynamically creating a tunnel in a communications network to provide subscribers host access to a network service, comprising: storing a subscriber profile in a network database, wherein the subscriber profile includes subscriber-specific network service tunneling requirements for a plurality of network services that are available to the subscriber, the network service tunneling requirements including information for identifying tunnel requirements for each of those services; receiving at a network device a first subscriber data packet associated with a first network service; accessing the subscriber profile to determine if the first network service has a subscriber-specific tunneling requirement; and creating a first tunnel if a determination is made that the subscriber profile requires a first network service tunnel, wherein the first tunnel has a first end point at the network device and a second end point at the first network service; and providing simultaneous access to a tunnel access session to more than one subscriber accessing the communications network, wherein the subscriber profile defines tunneling requirements for the plurality of network services that the subscriber has been authorized to access.