Patent ID: 7739402

Claim:
A method of determining a physical location of a client in a data communication network, the method comprising: assigning a connection point identifier to a bidirectional connection point through which the client communicates with a packet forwarding network device of the data communication network; establishing communication between the client and the data communication network, via a cable-based communication path that includes the bidirectional connection point and the packet forwarding network device; providing connection information to the client via the cable-based communication path, from the packet forwarding network device; determining the connection point identifier by the client based at least in part on the provided connection information; determining a physical location of the client, by the data communication network, based at least in part on the connection point identifier, including accessing a stored association between the connection point identifier and the physical location, wherein the connection point identifier is transmitted to the data communication network by the client via the cable-based communication path; providing the determined physical location to the client via the cable-based communication path from the data communication network, wherein the physical location includes location information configured to identify a location of the client distinct from a location of the packet forwarding network device; establishing the client as an authenticated user; establishing at least one packet forwarding policy based, at least in part, upon the determined physical location and the authenticated user; and forwarding one or more packets to or from the client, by the packet forwarding network device based, at least in part, upon the at least one packet forwarding policy.