Patent ID: 9313108
Filing Date: 2016-04-12
CPC Classification: G06F,H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method comprising: configuring a network element to provide Internet services over a network for a plurality of Internet service subscribers including performing the following for each subscriber, receiving, by the network element, a set of substitutable subscriber-specific service attributes from a RADIUS server of an Internet service provider, wherein the set of substitutable subscriber-specific service attributes include a service name and a parameter value; accessing, by the network element, a service profile corresponding to the service name included in the received set of substitutable subscriber-specific service attributes, the service profile configured to store service information not visible to the RADIUS server, the service information associated with the Internet services to be provided to subscribers, wherein the service information includes a dynamic service attribute, the dynamic service attribute associated with an expandable service parameter value; dynamically converting, by the network element, the received set of substitutable subscriber-specific service attributes into a set of one or more complex internal attributes based on the stored service information, wherein the dynamically converting includes substituting the parameter value included in the set of substitutable subscriber-specific service attributes received from the RADIUS server into the expandable service parameter value associated with the dynamic service attribute within the service profile, the set of complex internal attributes to be stored internal to the network element and are used to configure a subscriber session on a communications link that couples the subscriber and an Internet service provider through the network element; applying the set of complex internal attributes to a set of one or more components of the network element to configure the network element for the subscriber services to be provided, wherein the set of components configure the network element for the subscriber services by enforcing network policies of the communications link on a set of one or more network packet processors using the set of complex internal attributes.