Abstract: Providing a service includes establishing service parameter values for a service, where a service parameter value describes a metric of the service. The service parameter values are mapped to first network parameter values operable to configure a first wide area network port for a first transport mechanism. The service is provided over the first transport mechanism. The service parameter values are mapped to second network parameter values operable to configure a second wide area network port for a second transport mechanism. The service is provided over the second transport mechanism.

Abstract: Modeling a ring network of a network system includes creating a ring object that models the ring network. The network system includes a network element that has components. The ring object includes provisioning properties, where a provisioning property describes configuring a component to become a member of the ring network. A component is associated with the ring object to allow the component to become a member of the ring network, where the associated component is allowed to receive packets communicated by the ring network. The ring object is stored at memory of the network element.

Abstract: A method of facilitating traffic engineering services by communicating application objects over soft state process messages includes receiving an external soft state process initiating message at an ingress node to a core cloud, the core cloud comprising a plurality of nodes associated with a central processor, and generating an internal soft state process initiating message including an appended first application object. The method further includes communicating the internal soft state process initiating message to an egress node of the core cloud, receiving at the ingress node an internal soft state process confirming message including an appended second application object, and providing a traffic engineering service based, at least in part, on the first or second application data.