Patent ID: 8094658

Claim:
A system for providing premium transport over a network comprising: a cable modem (CM), a customer premises equipment (CPE), and a cable modem termination system (CMTS), wherein the CPE is connected to the CM and the CM communicates with the CMTS and wherein the CM comprises instructions for: receiving upstream service flow parameters from an operator of the network that define a standard upstream service flow; receiving preferred content provider (PCP) matching criteria; receiving packets from the CPE; extracting packet identifying information from a packet IP header of a packet; determining if the packet identifying information matches the PCP matching criteria; if the packet identifying information matches the PCP matching criteria, then directing the packet to the CMTS over a premium upstream service flow; and if the packet identifying information does not match the PCP matching criteria, then directing the packet to the CMTS over the standard upstream service flow.