Patent ID: 7916669

Claim:
A system for providing subscriber management in a Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) network, said system comprising: a broadband switch having a plurality of Ethernet ports; at least one Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer [DSLAM], having a pair of Ethernet ports connecting the at least one DSLAM to the broadband switch in a loop configuration; said broadband switch and said at least one DSLAM operating under at least one of the set of protocols of Spanning Tree Protocol STP, Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP), and Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP), wherein said pair of Ethernet ports of said at least one DSLAM is configured into an access loop pair (ALP), wherein both ports of the ALP have ingress counters and egress counters, and wherein the ingress counters and the egress counters are polled at a same time from line cards for both ports of the ALP.