Patent ID: 6553568
Filing Date: 2003-04-22
Classification: H04L,H04N

Abstract:
In a data-over-cable system with a plurality of network devices, a method for requesting a service level agreement, the method comprising the steps of:requesting on a network device, a service level agreement with a desired class-of-service or quality-of-service from a cable modem termination system; providing a data-link layer address for the network device on the data-over-cable system to the cable modem termination system to identify the network device; reserving statically a network address for the network device on the data-over-cable system from the cable modem termination system, wherein the statically reserved network address is reserved from a pool of network addresses associated with the requested service level agreement; requesting dynamically a network address on the network device during a boot sequence, wherein a network address server associated with the cable modem termination system allocates the statically reserved network address to the network device from the pool of network addresses associated with the requested service level agreement; receiving dynamically the statically reserved network address on the network device agreement in response to the dynamic request for a network address; receiving a configuration file on the network device in response to the boot sequence, wherein the configuration file is used to initialize a network device with a desired service level agreement on the data-over-cable system; and initializing the network device with the configuration file, wherein loading the configuration file includes setting a plurality of parameters for class-of-service or quality-of-service for the desired service level agreement on the network device.