Patent ID: 7787494

Claim:
A method of representing usage of network resources associated with a Virtual Private Network (VPN) being operated by a provider for a customer, the VPN represented by logical links in a network comprising a plurality of transmission facilities includes the steps of: selecting a set of VPN logical links, each VPN logical link in the set being associated with one of the plurality of transmission facilities, wherein each one of the transmission facilities comprises a total bandwidth apportioned into one or more partitions; for each transmission facility associated with each VPN logical link, assigning by the customer at least a portion of a partition of the total bandwidth of the each transmission facility to the respective VPN logical link associated with the customer; forwarding a VPN identifier identifying the VPN and a partition identifier identifying the assigned partition of each transmission facility to each transmission facility associated with each VPN logical link; and providing, to the customer, an indication of utilization of bandwidth at ones of the partitions associated with the customer.