US 6,778,525 B1 · Automated service provisioning in combination of vertical services and digital subscriber line domains

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.

Claims10

Dependent claims

In an access data network, comprising:

a communication access node coupled to a wide area internetwork;
a plurality of digital subscriber line transceivers coupled to network ends of subscriber lines, for data communication with transceivers coupled to respective customer premises ends of respective subscriber lines;
an access switch coupled for data communications with the digital subscriber line transceivers, for receiving data from customer premises equipment via respective ones of the digital subscriber line transceivers and for supplying data intended for transmission to predetermined customer premises 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 vertical services network coupled locally to the access switch, wherein the access switch segregates upstream traffic from the respective customer premises equipment between the vertical services network and the high-speed data link to the communication access node, and the access switch aggregate downstream traffic from the vertical services network and the high-speed data link from the communication access node for transmission to the respective customer premises equipment,
a method of establishing services for one of the customers in said access data network, comprising the steps of:
conducting an interactive session between customer premises equipment of the one customer and a server coupled to the vertical services network, to obtain customer service selection data from the one customer;
automatically determining a capability of the access data network to provide a service to the customer premises equipment of the one customer;
and
automatically provisioning a logical circuit for the one customer extending from the customer premises equipment of the one customer to the access node via the access switch and the high-speed data link, in accord with an appropriate one or more of the determined capability and the customer service selection data.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Automated service provisioning in combination of vertical services and digital subscriber line domains

Life of this patent

Automated service provisioning in combination of vertical services and digital subscriber line domains

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims10