System and Method for Affecting the Behavior of a Network Device in a Cable Network
First Claim
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1. A method for affecting the behavior of a network device comprising:
- creating at the network device a renewal message requesting renewal of an IP address lease;
directing the renewal message from the network device through a cable modem to a cable modem termination system (CMTS);
inserting at the CMTS the cable modem MAC address into the renewal message;
sending the renewal message to a lease management server;
detecting at the lease management server the presence of the cable modem MAC address in the renewal message;
in response to the presence of the cable modem MAC address, accessing from the lease management server a configuration record associated with the network device;
detecting the presence of a behavior attribute of the network device in the configuration record; and
sending the behavior attribute in a lease renewal message to the network device to produce a desired behavior when the behavior attribute is present in the configuration record.
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Abstract
A subscriber access control system (SACS) configures a network device connected to cable network to affect the behavior of that device. The SACS comprises a rules engine and a datastore that stores the current state of subscribers known to the SACS and historical request information. When the SACS receives a request to quarantine a device, it assigns attributes to a subscriber record accessed by a DHCP server to affect the configuration and behavior of that device. The actual behavior of the quarantined device is determined by the presence of the attribute and the value of the attribute.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. A method for affecting the behavior of a network device comprising:
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creating at the network device a renewal message requesting renewal of an IP address lease; directing the renewal message from the network device through a cable modem to a cable modem termination system (CMTS); inserting at the CMTS the cable modem MAC address into the renewal message; sending the renewal message to a lease management server; detecting at the lease management server the presence of the cable modem MAC address in the renewal message; in response to the presence of the cable modem MAC address, accessing from the lease management server a configuration record associated with the network device; detecting the presence of a behavior attribute of the network device in the configuration record; and sending the behavior attribute in a lease renewal message to the network device to produce a desired behavior when the behavior attribute is present in the configuration record. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. An IP address lease management system comprising:
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a cable modem termination system (CMTS); a network; a network device; a cable modem; a datastore, wherein the datastore comprises records, and a lease management server, wherein the datastore is accessible to the lease management server, wherein the network device is connected to the cable modem, wherein the cable modem cooperates with the CMTS via a network, and wherein the network device is configured for; creating a renewal message requesting renewal of an IP address of the network device; directing the renewal message from the network device to the CMTS; and wherein the CMTS is configured for; receiving the renewal message from the network device; inserting the cable modem MAC address into the renewal message; and sending the renewal message to the lease management server; and wherein the lease management server is configured for; receiving the renewal message from the CMTS; detecting the presence of the cable modem MAC address in the renewal message; in response to the presence of the cable modem MAC address, accessing a record associated with the network device in the datastore; detecting the presence of a behavior attribute of the network device in the configuration record; and sending the network the behavior attribute in a lease renewal message to the network device when the behavior attribute is present in the configuration record. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification