Described is a method of constructing multi-user packets in a communication network utilizing packet-switching, wherein a plurality of user request service from the communication network. The segments to be protected are modified using the identification information on the distribution medium and hardware information unique to a particular customer device. For each destination node a default and a detour branching are defined, each specifying a route to the destination node. Each of the side edges of the segments associated with the slot defines a substantially vertical plane with a zone being defined between the substantially vertical planes of the side edges, and the movement apparatus is located substantially outside of the zone of the slot. Preferrably, throttling is performed using a leaky-bucket algorithm.