Docsis provisioning of point-to-point ethernet

A system for provisioning of point-to-point Ethernet data services via a cable provisioning infrastructure, comprising:

• a multiple dwelling unit for a plurality of cable operator subscribers, comprising:
• a plurality of subscriber customer premises equipment (CPEs), each CPE having a unique identifier;
• and
• one or more floor switches, each switch comprising one or more customer-facing ports;
• and
• a cable operator distribution hub, comprising one or more aggregation switches, wherein each floor switch is connected to one aggregation switch;
• an operations support system server, connected to said distribution hub, storing subscriber configuration files comprising classification rules and priority attributes of subscribed-to data services, and operative to provision one or more cable data services from a cable operator network to each subscriber CPE;
• and
• a gateway server, connected to said operations support system server, operative to translate the subscriber configuration files to floor switch configurations and aggregation switch configurations, wherein (i) each floor switch is operative to classify frames that it receives from CPEs to data services, to prioritize the thus-classified frames, into queues, and to enforce service level agreements for those data services, in the direction from said CPEs to the cable operator network, and (ii) each aggregation switch is operative to classify frames that it receives from the cable operator network to data services, to prioritize the thus-classified frames into queues, and to enforce service level agreements for those data services, in the direction from the cable operator network to said CPEs.

A method for using a cable operations support system infrastructure for provisioning point-to-point Ethernet data services, comprising:

• relaying initial address request messages between a cable operator subscriber's customer premises equipment (CPE) and a dynamic address allocation server via both an aggregation switch of a cable distribution hub and a gateway server;
• adding, by the gateway server, dynamic address allocation server options to messages that it relays;
• and
• removing, by the gateway server, dynamic address allocation server options from reply messages that it receives from the dynamic address allocation server.