| 摘要 |
A method and apparatus for providing domainless service selection (DLSS) are described. According to one embodiment of the invention, there is a service selection network element used to provide access of computing devices to a set of one or more services provided by a set of one or more providers. In addition, a web portal allows subscribers to log in and/or select/switch between the services and providers. Responsive to such action by a given subscriber, the web portal causes a record of that subscriber to be altered to reflect the action and causes the service selection network element to attempt to connect the subscriber accordingly. According to certain embodiments of the invention, subscribers' domainless user identifiers are merged by the service selection network element with domain names (stored in a database) of services/providers to form network addresses (e.g., Internet addresses). |
| 主权项 |
1. An apparatus comprising:
a web portal server operable to implement a web portal, to be coupled to a service selection network element coupled to a plurality of computing devices over an access network and coupled to a set of one or more services provided by a set of one or more providers, where network connectivity to the set of one or more services provided by a set of one or more providers is limited to connecting through the service selection network element, to allow a plurality of subscribers at said plurality of computing devices to perform one or more activities that include the ability to:
login,select after login between the set of one or more services provided by the set of one or more providers, andswitch after login between the set of one or more services provided by the set of one or more providers,wherein responsive to the one or more activities performed by a given one of said plurality of subscribers, the web portal to cause a domainless service selection (DLSS) record of that subscriber, which includes a domainless user identifier of the subscriber and a domain name, to be altered to reflect the one or more activities performed including updating the DLSS record to include an IP address assigned to the subscriber's computing device and to cause the service selection network element to attempt to connect the subscriber accordingly, wherein there are at least two in at least one of the set of services and the set of providers, and wherein the domainless user identifier is based on one or more of a MAC address of that subscriber's computing device, a domainless PPP username of that subscriber, and a circuit identifier for that subscriber's computing device. |
