System and method for providing a customer controlled network

The invention has a general objective of mapping applications that generate packets to a QoS policy on a packet routed network, such as an IP network, and automatically generating and/or changing the configuration of network elements, such as routers, to treat packets from the application according to the QoS policy. In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, high-level descriptions of applications and quality of service (QoS) treatment, for example, are automatically translated into low-level QoS configurations for routers. Application profiles specifying how traffic for those applications should be treated can be specified by those without detailed technical knowledge and QoS configurations automatically created for download onto customer premises equipment and, if necessary, also to access and backbone networks.