Patent ID: 7315553

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a network element adapted for providing Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexing (DSLAM) functionality; and a plurality of integrated services modules connected to the network element, each one of said integrated services modules including: a functionality server adapted for providing prescribed server-specific functionality and adapted for communicating information via a universal interface format; and an access server connected between a system interface of the network element and the functionality server and adapted for translating said information between a system-specific interface format compatible with the system interface of the network element and the universal interface format, wherein the system-specific interface format is a proprietary interface format; and the universal interface format is an industry standardized interface format; wherein the functionality server of at least one of said integrated services modules is further adapted for initiating provisioning of a connection between the network element and a subscriber data processing system; and wherein the functionality server is further adapted for assessing at least one of a parameter associated with a subscriber quality of service and a parameter associated with bandwidth of a connection between the network element and a subscriber data processing system, and initiating provisioning is performed after said assessing; and wherein the network element is further adapted for implementing said provisioning of the connection.