Software modem with privileged mode decryption of control codes

A communications system, comprising:

• a physical layer hardware unit adapted to communicate data over a communications channel in accordance with assigned transmission parameters, the physical layer hardware unit being adapted to receive an incoming signal over the communications channel and sample the incoming signal to generate a digital received signal;
• and
• a processing unit adapted to execute a standard mode driver in a standard mode of operation and a privileged mode driver in a privileged mode of operation, wherein the standard mode driver includes program instructions adapted to extract encrypted data from the digital received signal and pass the encrypted data to the privileged mode driver, and the privileged mode driver includes program instructions adapted to decrypt the encrypted data to generate decrypted data including control codes and transfer the control codes to the physical layer hardware unit, the physical layer hardware being adapted to configure its assigned transmission parameters based on the control codes.