Generic provisioning of voice over internet protocol (VoIP)

A method of establishing service between a customer premises equipment (CPE) unit and a service provider, comprising:

• connecting the CPE unit to a public wide area network (WAN), including the Internet;
• automatically retrieving an initialization server network address from a local memory unit that identifies the network location of a service provider initialization server;
• establishing a transport layer security (TLS) connection with the initialization server using optional TLS functions to send the initialization server a non-generic CPE device certificate, wherein
• the non-generic CPE device certificate includes extended information that uniquely identifies the particular CPE apparatus;
• and
• the non-generic CPE device certificate is issued by the CPE supplier;
• accessing the initialization server over the public WAN using the retrieved initialization server network address;
• according to a scenario termed voice-service-provider (VSP)-locked-provisioned-new-subscriber:
• acquiring the configuration server address from the initialization server,
• acquiring the subscriber configuration data from the configuration server using the configuration server address;
• and
• initializing the CPE apparatus with the subscriber configuration data to establish service with a service provider;
• according to a scenario termed VSP-locked-new-subscriber:
• notifying a user that connection to the initialization server is rejected,
• acquiring the configuration server address from a resynchronization message from a provisioning server to a user terminal that redirects the resynchronization message to the CPE apparatus from the user terminal,
• acquiring an updated subscriber configuration data from the configuration server using the configuration server address;
• and
• initializing the CPE apparatus with the updated subscriber configuration data to establish service with a service provider;
• according to a scenario termed VSP-portal-provisioned-new-subscriber:
• acquiring the configuration server address from the resynchronization message from the provisioning server redirected to the CPE apparatus from the user terminal,
• acquiring the subscriber configuration data from the configuration server using the configuration server address;
• and
• initializing the CPE apparatus with the subscriber configuration data to establish service with a service provider;
• and
• according to a scenario termed VSP-portal-new-subscriber:
• acquiring the configuration server address from the resynchronization message from the provisioning server redirected to the CPE apparatus from the user terminal,
• acquiring the updated subscriber configuration data from the configuration server using the configuration server address;
• and
• initializing the CPE apparatus with the updated subscriber configuration data to establish service with a service provider.

A customer premises equipment (CPE) apparatus, comprising:

• a first communications unit adapted to send and receive messages over a public wide area network (WAN), including the Internet, the first communications unit being adapted to receive a resynchronization message including a configuration server address over the public WAN, send a request message to a configuration server at a configuration server address over the public WAN, and receive a response message from the configuration server comprising a configuration data over the public WAN;
• a second communications unit adapted to send and receive messages with the first communications unit and over a local area network (LAN), the second communications unit receiving the resynchronization message from the first communications unit and passing the resynchronization message to a user terminal, the second communications unit receiving the resynchronization message redirected from the user terminal;
• a processing unit adapted to:
• control the sending and receiving of messages through the first communications unit and the second communications unit, the processing unit initializing the CPE apparatus with the configuration data to establish service with a service provider, wherein the processing unit automatically retrieves an initialization server address from the memory unit after connection of the CPE apparatus to the public WAN, the processing unit establish a transport layer security (TLS) connection with an initialization server using optional TLS functions to send the initialization server a non-generic CPE device certificate, wherein the non-generic CPE device certificate includes extended information that uniquely identifies the particular CPE apparatus;
• and the non-generic CPE device certificate is issued by the CPE supplier, and the processing unit sends a request message to the initialization server through the first communications unit;
• and wherein:
• according to a scenario termed voice-service-provider (VSP)-locked-provisioned-new-subscriber, the processing unit:
• acquires the configuration server address from the initialization server,
• acquires the subscriber configuration data from the configuration server using the configuration server address;
• and
• initializes the CPE apparatus with the subscriber configuration data to establish service with a service provider;
• according to a scenario termed VSP-locked-new-subscriber, the processing unit:
• notifies a user that connection to the initialization server is rejected,
• acquires the configuration server address from a resynchronization message from a provisioning server to a user terminal that redirects the resynchronization message to the CPE apparatus from the user terminal,
• acquires an updated subscriber configuration data from the configuration server using the configuration server address;
• and
• initializes the CPE apparatus with the updated subscriber configuration data to establish service with a service provider;
• according to a scenario termed VSP-portal-provisioned-new-subscriber, the processing unit:
• acquires the configuration server address from the resynchronization message from the provisioning server redirected to the CPE apparatus from the user terminal,
• acquires the subscriber configuration data from the configuration server using the configuration server address;
• and
• initializes the CPE apparatus with the subscriber configuration data to establish service with a service provider;
• and
• according to a scenario termed VSP-portal-new-subscriber, the processing unit:
• acquires the configuration server address from the resynchronization message from the provisioning server redirected to the CPE apparatus from the user terminal,
• acquires the updated subscriber configuration data from the configuration server using the configuration server address;
• and
• initializes the CPE apparatus with the updated subscriber configuration data to establish service with a service provider;
• and
• a memory unit adapted store and retrieve information including the initialization server address, the initialization server address being stored in the memory unit prior to sending the request message to the initialization server.

A method of establishing service between a customer premises equipment (CPE) unit and a service provider, comprising:

• at the CPE unit, connecting the CPE unit to a public wide area network (WAN), the CPE unit configured to send and receive messages over the public WAN;
• at the CPE unit, automatically executing an internal operation to retrieve a stored network address for a service provider initialization server when the CPE unit is connected to the public WAN;
• at the CPE unit, establishing a transport layer security (TLS) connection with the initialization server using optional TLS functions to send the initialization server a non-generic CPE device certificate, wherein
• the non-generic CPE device certificate includes extended information that uniquely identifies the particular CPE apparatus;
• and
• the non-generic CPE device certificate is issued by the CPE supplier;
• at the CPE unit, accessing the service provider initialization server;
• according to a scenario termed voice-service-provider (VSP)-locked-provisioned-new-subscriber, at the CPE unit:
• acquiring the configuration server address from the initialization server,
• acquiring the subscriber configuration data from the configuration server using the configuration server address;
• and
• initializing the CPE apparatus with the subscriber configuration data to establish service with a service provider;
• according to a scenario termed VSP-locked-new-subscriber, at the CPE unit:
• notifying a user that connection to the initialization server is rejected,
• acquiring the configuration server address from a resynchronization message from a provisioning server to a user terminal that redirects the resynchronization message to the CPE apparatus from the user terminal, and
• acquiring an updated subscriber configuration data from the configuration server using the configuration server address;
• initializing the CPE apparatus with the updated subscriber configuration data to establish service with a service provider;
• according to a scenario termed VSP-portal-provisioned-new-subscriber, at the CPE unit:
• acquiring the configuration server address from the resynchronization message from the provisioning server redirected to the CPE apparatus from the user terminal,
• acquiring the subscriber configuration data from the configuration server using the configuration server address;
• and
• initializing the CPE apparatus with the subscriber configuration data to establish service with a service provider;
• and
• according to a scenario termed VSP-portal-new-subscriber, at the CPE unit:
• acquiring the configuration server address from the resynchronization message from the provisioning server redirected to the CPE apparatus from the user terminal,
• acquiring the updated subscriber configuration data from the configuration server using the configuration server address;
• and
• initializing the CPE apparatus with the updated subscriber configuration data to establish service with a service provider.