Automatic programming of customer premises equipment for vertical services integration

• US 20020044567A1
• Filed: 12/07/2000
• Published: 04/18/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rakuten, Inc. (Rakuten Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Communications Inc.
• Inventors: Voit, Eric A., Baum, Robert T.
• Granted Patent: US 6,829,250 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/467
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/561 Star, e.g. cross-connect, concentrator, subscriber group equipment, remote electronics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5632 Bandwidth allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5658 using the AAL5
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5667 IP over ATM
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5672 Multiplexing, e.g. coding, scrambling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2408 for supporting different services, e.g. a differentiated services [DiffServ] type of service
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0478 Provisions for broadband connections

Abstract

Offering vertical services to subscribers and service providers is an avenue to immediately improve the competitiveness of digital subscriber line access service, for example of the type offered by a local exchange carrier. To deliver high-quality vertical services, however, the underlying ADSL Data Network (ADN) or the like needs to establish Quality of Service (QoS) as a core characteristic and offer an efficient mechanism for insertion of the vertical services. The inventive network architecture introduces QoS into the ADN, in a manner that enables the delivery of sophisticated and demanding IP-based services to subscribers, does not affect existing Internet tiers of service, and is cost-effective in terms of initial costs, build-out, and ongoing operations. The architecture utilizes a switch capable of examining and selectively forwarding packets or frames based on higher layer information in the protocol stack, that is to say on information that is encapsulated in the layer-2 information utilized to define normal connectivity through the network. The switch enables segregation of upstream traffic by type and downstream aggregation of Internet traffic together with traffic from a local vertical services domain. Systems coupled to the network and software in a user'"'"'s computer enable a method for automated, end-to-end provisioning of a logical data circuit, in response to a customer'"'"'s request for bundled broadband services. Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) located between the ADN and customer premises data equipment examines frames received from the data equipment and modifies the frames according to the destination of the frames'"'"' payloads. This CPE also enforces QoS guarantees in the upstream direction and security-related access control lists. Automatic programming of the CPE is simplified for customers by cooperating applications distributed across the ADN that interactively generate and download programming information for the CPE.

Claims

1. A method for automatic programming of a Customer Premises Equipment located between a customer'"'"'s network device and an interface to an access data network that has at least two network service domains, comprising the steps of:

conducting an interactive session between the customer'"'"'s network device and a server coupled to the access data network;

obtaining data related to network services requested by the customer via the interactive session;

generating programming information based on the obtained data; and

forwarding the programming information over the access data network to the Customer Premises Equipment.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the interactive session is conducted between a web browser on the customer'"'"'s network device and a web server coupled to one of the network services domains.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the one of the network services domains provides local access services.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of obtaining data includes the steps of:

obtaining data related to the upstream bandwidth requirements of each of the network services requested by the customer; and

obtaining data related to a network address of each of the network services requested by the customer.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the step of obtaining data further includes the steps of:

obtaining data related to the customer'"'"'s network devices that use one or more corresponding network services; and

obtaining data related to security parameters for each of the network services and corresponding customer network devices.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein the step of generating programming information includes the steps of:

generating prioritization and queuing rules applicable to traffic associated with each of the network services; and

generating encapsulation rules applicable to traffic associated with each of the network services.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the step of generating encapsulation rules further includes the step of:

identifying an encapsulation rule based on the network address of each of the network services.

8. The method according to claim 5, wherein the step of generating programming information includes the steps of:

generating an access control table based on the obtained security parameters.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps during the interactive session of:

automatically determining a capability of the access data network to provide a service to the customer network device; and

automatically provisioning a logical circuit for the customer extending from the Customer Premises Equipment through the access data network in accord with the determined capability of the access data network and the requested services.

10. A software product enabling automatic programming of a Customer Premises Equipment located between a customer'"'"'s network device and an interface to an access data network that has at least two network service domains, said software product comprising:

a least one machine readable medium; and

programming code, carried by the at least one machine readable medium, for execution by at least one computer, wherein the programming code comprises;

a services application for implementing interactive communication with a customer subscribing to services of the access data network to obtain service selection information from the customer; and

a programming application for generating programming information, for controlling the operation of the Customer Premises Equipment according to the service selection information, and for forwarding the programming information to the Customer Premises Equipment.

11. The software product according to claim 10, wherein the programming code further comprises:

a metering application for automatically determining capabilities of the access data network to provide service for the customer.

12. The software product code according to claim 11, wherein the programming code further comprises:

a provisioning application for provisioning a logical circuit through the access data network in accord with one or more of the service selection information and determined capabilities.

14. The communications system according to claim 13, wherein the server is located remotely from the web server and configured to communicate with the program information generator and the web server.

15. The communications system according to claim 13, wherein the Customer Premises Equipment programming information comprises one or more of security access control lists, encapsulation-type routing tables, and QoS rule-sets.

16. The communications system according to claim 13, wherein the Customer Premises Equipment further comprises:

a web interface for generating limited Customer Premises Equipment programming information sufficient to enable the initiation of the interactive communication with the web server.

17. The communications system according to claim 13, where in the access data network comprises:

a communication access node coupled to a first network domain;

a plurality of digital subscriber line transceivers coupled to network ends of subscriber lines, for data communication with transceivers coupled to customer premises ends of respective subscriber lines;

an access switch coupled for data communication with the digital subscriber line transceivers, for receiving data from customer premises data equipment via respective ones of the digital subscriber line transceivers and for supplying data intended for transmission to predetermined customer premises data equipment to the respective ones of the digital subscriber line transceivers;

a high-speed data link between the access switch and the communication access node;

a layer-2 protocol logical communication circuit provisioned through the access switch and the high-speed data link for each subscriber line, wherein each logical communication circuit is provisioned to extend from a respective customer premises to the communication access node;

a second network domain coupled locally to the access switch; and

a controller associated with the access switch, for examining communicated information in transmissions from respective customer premises, for a protocol encapsulated within said layer-2 protocol, to distinguish transmission types, and in response to cause the switch to;

forward each detected transmission of a first transmission type to the communication access node over a respective one of the logical communication circuits defined in terms of the layer-2 protocol, and

forward each detected transmission of a second type, different from the first transmission type, to the second network domain.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein the programming information comprises one or more of:

QoS rule sets for the requested services, ethertype encapsulation rules for the requested services, and security control information for the one or more customer devices.

13. A communications system with automatic service provisioning capabilities, comprising:

an access data network for providing access services to at least two different network domains;

a web server coupled to the access data network for interactive communication with a customer subscribing to services;

a Customer Premises Equipment coupled to the access data network and to one or more devices of the customer which use the services;

said Customer Premises Equipment comprising a non-volatile memory for storing programming information that controls the operation of the Customer Premises Equipment;

a programming information generator responsive to customer service selection data obtained via the interactive communication with the web server, for automatically determining Customer Premises Equipment programming information; and

a server configured to forward the automatically determined Customer Premises Equipment programming information to the Customer Premises Equipment.

18. A method for automatically programming a Customer Premises Equipment located between an access data network and one or more customer devices that utilize services provided over the access data network, comprising the steps of:

presenting a web-based interface to a customer;

receiving input relating to access data network services requested by the customer;

identifying network parameters relating to the services requested by the customer;

generating programming information for the Customer Premises Equipment based on the received input and the identified network parameters; and

downloading the programming information through the access data network to the Customer Premises Equipment to control the operation of the Customer Premises Equipment in exchanging upstream and downstream data related to the requested services over the access data network.

20. In an access data network providing access services to at least two network domains, comprising:

a Customer Premises Equipment located between the access data network and one or more customer devices and configured to;

receive Ethernet frames, each containing an IP datagram, from the one or more customer devices;

for each received frame, generate a modified Ethernet frame by modifying an ethertype identifier of the received Ethernet frame according to a destination address of the IP datagram; and

forward the modified Ethernet frames to the access data network;

an access switch upstream from the Customer Premises Equipment configured to;

receive upstream traffic, comprising the modified Ethernet frames forwarded by the Customer Premises Equipment; and

segregate the upstream traffic between the at least two network domains according to ethertype identifiers of the modified Ethernet frames,

a method for automatic programming of the Customer Premises Equipment, comprising the steps of;

conducting an interactive session between the customer'"'"'s network device and a server coupled to the access data network;

obtaining, via the interactive session, data related to one of a plurality of ethertypes associated with each one of respective network services requested by the customer;

generating programming information based on the obtained data; and

downloading the programming information over the access data network into the Customer Premises Equipment to control the generation of the modified Ethernet frames by the Customer Premises Equipment.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein the programming information comprises a routing table that associates a respective network domain address with one of the respective network services and associates one of the plurality of ethertypes with each of the respective network domain addresses.

22. The method according to claim 20, wherein the obtained data further relates to QoS rule-sets associated with each one of the respective network services requested by the customer.