Methods and apparatus for supporting devices of different types using a residential gateway

A communications method, the communications method comprising:

• reserving a first set of resources for communication between a residential gateway located at a first customer premises and a wireline access gateway, said first set of resources providing a first amount of bandwidth;
• using the first set of reserved resources to communicate an Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) authentication message for a first user device, the first user device being a first type device;
• reserving, following successful EAP authentication of the first user device, a second set of resources corresponding to a subscription associated with the first user device, said second set of resources providing a second amount of bandwidth between the residential gateway and the wireline access gateway, said second amount of bandwidth being greater than the first amount of bandwidth provided by said first set of resources;
• and
• operating multiple devices of a second type at the first customer premises to share a common bit pipe, providing the first amount of bandwidth, said second type devices being devices which do not support EAP authentication.

A communications method, the communications method comprising:

• reserving a first set of resources for communication between a residential gateway located at a first customer premises and a wireline access gateway, said first set of resources providing a first amount of bandwidth;
• using the first set of reserved resources to communicate Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) authentication messages for a first user device, the first user device being a first type device and being a device of a user visiting the first customer premises, using the first set of reserved resources to communicate EAP authentication messages for the first user device of the first type including:
• receiving, via the first set of reserved resources, at the wireline access gateway, a first EAP message from the first user device, said received first EAP message being used to trigger EAP based authentication;
• and
• sending an EAP success message to the first user device using the first set of resources to communicate the EAP success message to the residential gateway for communication to the first user device;
• and
• reserving, following successful EAP authentication of the first user device, a second set of resources corresponding to a subscription associated with the first user device, said second set of resources providing a second amount of bandwidth between the residential gateway and the wireline access gateway, said second amount of bandwidth being greater than the first amount of bandwidth provided by said first set of resources, the second set of resources being a dedicated set of Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) resources reserved for use by communications corresponding to the first user device.

A communications system comprising:

• a wireline access gateway including a network interface and a first processor, said first processor being configured to control the wireline access gateway to:
• reserve a first set of resources for communication between a residential gateway located at a first customer premises and the wireline access gateway, said first set of resources providing a first amount of bandwidth;
• use the first set of reserved resources to communicate an Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) authentication message for a first user device, said first user device being a first type device;
• and
• reserve, following successful EAP authentication of the first user device, a second set of resources corresponding to a subscription associated with the first user device, said second set of resources providing a second amount of bandwidth between the residential gateway and the wireline access gateway, said second amount of bandwidth being greater than the first amount of bandwidth provided by said first set of resources;
• and
• use the second set of reserved resources to communicate a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) request and DHCP response for the first user device.

A communications system comprising:

• a wireline access gateway including a first processor, said first processor being configured to control the wireline access gateway to:
• reserve a first set of resources for communication between a residential gateway located at a first customer premises and the wireline access gateway, said first set of resources providing a first amount of bandwidth;
• use the first set of reserved resources to communicate an Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) authentication message for a first user device, said first user device being a first type device;
• and
• reserve, following successful EAP authentication of the first user device, a second set of resources corresponding to a subscription associated with the first user device, said second set of resources providing a second amount of bandwidth between the residential gateway and the wireline access gateway, said second amount of bandwidth being greater than the first amount of bandwidth provided by said first set of resources;
• receive at the wireline access gateway a first Layer 2 (L2) frame that was communicated from said residential gateway to the wireline access gateway via the first set reserved resources, said first L2 frame including a first Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) request from a second user device, said second user device being a second type device, said first L2 frame including the first DHCP request;
• and
• communicate, using the first set of reserved resources, a second L2 frame including a first DHCP response to the second user device of the second type;
• and
• said residential gateway including a second processor;
• and
• wherein said second processor is configured to control the residential gateway to:
• configure, prior to said wireline access gateway using the first set of reserved resources, the residential gateway to operate in a bridge mode of operation in which traffic received by the residential gateway is forwarded by the residential gateway to the wireline access gateway.

A non-transitory computer readable medium including computer executable instructions which when executed by a processor of a wireline access gateway cause the wireline access gateway to perform steps of:

• reserving a first set of resources for communication between a residential gateway located at a first customer premises and the wireline access gateway, said first set of resources providing a first amount of bandwidth;
• using the first set of reserved resources to communicate an Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) authentication message for a first user device, said first user device being a first type device;
• reserving, following successful EAP authentication of the first user device, a second set of resources corresponding to a subscription associated with the first user device, said second set of resources providing a second amount of bandwidth between the residential gateway and the wireline access gateway, said second amount of bandwidth being greater than the first amount of bandwidth provided by said first set of resources;
• and
• using the second set of reserved resources to communicate a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) request and DHCP response for the first user device.