Patent ID: 6993132

Claim:
A digital cable network architecture, comprising: a cable medium; a plurality of hosts that include a receiver with a hash function generator that calculates hash values based on a hash function and data from memory blocks in said receiver; a policy file store that contains policy files having a service provider section, a consumer section, and a manufacturer section that can be updated by said service provider, a consumer and a receiver manufacturer, respectively; a service provider that is associated with said policy file store, that provides digital cable services over said cable medium to said hosts and that downloads monitor applications (MAs) and policy files to said hosts over said cable medium, wherein said MAs access said service provider section, said consumer section, and said manufacturer section of said policy file to alter resource contention, alter service provisioning at levels below a channel level, and alter fraudulent receiver identification calculations, and wherein said hash function of said receiver outputs said hash values to said MAs, which compare said hash values to expected hash values to identify fraudulent access.