Patent ID: 7774436

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving STB IP provisioning requests from STBs, provided by at least two different vendors, through a signaling pathway that uses a firewall to separate a management network from a data network housing a network provisioning unit (NPU), the management network and the data network functioning on a content distribution side of a network; identifying one of the at least two different vendors associated with the STBs; identifying STB IP provisioning data associated with each identified vendor; and transmitting the identified STB IP provisioning data from the NPU to the STBs requesting the STB IP provisioning, through the signaling pathway, wherein the identified STB IP provisioning data is outputted according to a first protocol such that the provisioning of the STBs is standardized for each of the at least two different vendors, wherein the firewall provides separation for a video-on-demand (VOD) controller and STB controller portion in the management network from the data network.