Method and system for establishing a cross-carrier, multilayer communications path

1. A method for establishing an intercarrier, interlayer communications path between a first carrier, having a first network domain, and a second carrier, having a second carrier network domain, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving a request from said first carrier to communicate data to said second carrier;

fulfilling said request via said second carrier in said first layer; and

automatically allocating bandwidth from said second layer to said connection;

wherein said fulfilling said request includes:

providing a carrier-to-carrier bridging control;

providing for the transmission of said data via said second carrier across said second carrier network domain, whereby said data is communicated from said first carrier through said second carrier by passing through said carrier-to-carrier bridging control.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein establishing said connection includes establishing a secure connection.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein said secure connection is an isolated connection.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein automatically allocating bandwidth from said second layer to said connection includes aggregating a plurality of first-layer signals into one or more second-layer signals.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein aggregating said plurality of first-layer signals includes a selection from the group comprising:

mapping one or more packet-layer transmissions into a framing-layer transmission; and

mapping one or more framing-layer transmission into a transport-layer transmission.

6. The method of claim 5 , where said framing-layer technologies includes a selection from the group comprising Synchronous Optical NETwork (SONET), Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), Digital Wrapper, Optical Transport Network (OTN), and Gigabit Ethernet (GigE).

7. The method of claim 6 , where said packet-layer technologies include a selection from the group comprising Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Internet Protocol (IP), Frame Relay (FR), and MultiProtocol Label Switching (MPLS) technologies.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein aggregating said plurality of signals includes mapping one or more framing-layer technologies into a transport layer technology.

9. The method of claim 8 , where said transport-layer technologies include lambdas.

10. A tangible computer-readable medium having computer-useable instructions embodied thereon, that when executed cause a method for establishing an intercarrier, interlayer communications path between a first carrier, having a first network domain, and a second carrier, having a second carrier network domain, said method comprising the steps of:

fulfilling a request received from said first carrier to communicate data via said second carrier in said first layer; and

providing for the automatic allocation of bandwidth from said second layer to said connection;

wherein said fulfilling said request includes:

providing a carrier-to-carrier bridging control; and

providing for the transmission of said data via said second carrier across said second carrier network domain, whereby said data is communicated from said first carrier through said second carrier by passing through said carrier-to-carrier bridging control.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein communicating said data includes communicating said data via a secure connection.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein said secure connection is an isolated connection.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein automatically allocating bandwidth from said second layer to said connection includes aggregating a plurality of first-layer signals into one or more second-layer signals.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein aggregating said plurality of first-layer signals includes a selection from the group comprising:

mapping one or more packet-layer transmissions into a framing-layer transmission; and

mapping one or more framing-layer transmission into a transport-layer transmission.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 , where said framing-layer technologies includes a selection from the group comprising Synchronous Optical NETwork (SONET), Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), Digital Wrapper, Optical Transport Network (OTN), and Gigabit Ethernet (GigE).

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15 , where said packet layer technologies include a selection from the group comprising Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Internet Protocol (IP), Frame Relay (FR), and MultiProtocol Label Switching (MPLS) technologies.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 , where said transport-layer technologies include lambdas.

18. A system for communicating data through a communications carrier network domain, comprising a carrier-to-carrier bridging control for establishing a data connection through said network domain;

wherein said carrier-to-carrier bridging control includes:

a first request-fulfillment component for facilitating intralayer communication;

a second request-fulfillment component for facilitating intracarrier communication; and

a bandwidth-allocation component logically coupled to said first and second request-fulfillment components for automatically allocating cross-carrier bandwidth from a first layer to a second layer of a network domain.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein said data connection includes a secure connection.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein said first request-fulfillment component is a traffic engineering request-fulfillment component.

21. The system of claim 20 , wherein said second request-fulfillment component is a network engineering request-fulfillment component.

22. The system of claim 18 , wherein said secure connection is an isolated connection.

23. The system of claim 22 , wherein said bandwidth-allocation component comprises a network-engineering component.

24. The system of claim 23 , wherein said bandwidth-allocation component further comprises a traffic-engineering component.

25. The system of claim 22 , wherein said bandwidth-allocation component is adapted to aggregate a plurality of first-layer signals into one or more second-layer signals.

26. The system of claim 25 , wherein

said first-layer signals include a selection from the group comprising Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Internet Protocol (IP), Frame Relay (FR), and MultiProtocol Label Switching (MPLS) technologies; and

said second-layer signals include a selection from the group comprising Synchronous Optical NETwork (SONET), Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), Digital Wrapper, Optical Transport Network (OTN), and Gigabit Ethernet (GigE).

27. The system of claim 26 , wherein

said first-layer signals include a selection from the group comprising Synchronous Optical NETwork (SONET), Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), Digital Wrapper (ITU-T G.709), Optical Transport Network (OTN), and Gigabit Ethernet (GigE); and

said second-layer technologies include lambdas.

28. A system for establishing an intercarrier, interlayer communications path between a first network carrier and a second carrier, said method comprising the steps of:

request-receiving means for receiving a request from said first carrier to communicate data to said second carrier via a data communications path;

a request-fulfillment means, logically coupled to said request-receiving means, for satisfying said request; and

a bandwidth-allocation means, logically coupled to said request-fulfillment means, for automatically allocating bandwidth to said first and second carriers;

wherein said fulfilling said request includes:

providing a carrier-to-carrier bridging control;

providing for the transmission of said data via said second carrier across said second carrier network domain, whereby said data is communicated from said first carrier through said second carrier by passing through said carrier-to-carrier bridging control.

29. The system of claim 28 , wherein said data communications path is a secure path.