1. A method of providing services in a network, the method comprising: storing structured service documents defining available services in a database in at least one network element; receiving a service request in the at least one network element from a service requestor, the service request comprising a structured request document, the structured request document containing a plurality of nodes; forming a Path and Parent Associated Node (PPAN) element for each node in the structured request document, each PPAN element being a data structure containing a path level of a current node in the structured request document, a name and value pair associated with the current element, and a name and value pair of a parent element of the current element, the PPAN element not containing additional information about structure of the structured request document other than the path level of the current node and the parent-child relationship of the current node and its parent node; using the PPAN elements from the structured request document to identify a subset of the stored structured service documents that contain data and structure that match the PPAN elements; and providing to the service requestor, at least part of an structured service document in the identified subset of structured service documents to enable the service requestor to access the service defined by the structured service document of which at least part was provided.
1. A method of providing services in a network, the method comprising: storing structured service documents defining available services in a database in at least one network element; receiving a service request in the at least one network element from a service requestor, the service request comprising a structured request document, the structured request document containing a plurality of nodes; forming a Path and Parent Associated Node (PPAN) element for each node in the structured request document, each PPAN element being a data structure containing a path level of a current node in the structured request document, a name and value pair associated with the current element, and a name and value pair of a parent element of the current element, the PPAN element not containing additional information about structure of the structured request document other than the path level of the current node and the parent-child relationship of the current node and its parent node; using the PPAN elements from the structured request document to identify a subset of the stored structured service documents that contain data and structure that match the PPAN elements; and providing to the service requestor, at least part of an structured service document in the identified subset of structured service documents to enable the service requestor to access the service defined by the structured service document of which at least part was provided. 3. The method of claim 1 , wherein each PPAN element comprises attribute name and value pairs associated with the current node.