Patent ID: 8532095

Claim:
A method, comprising: establishing a physical layer network connection between a particular customer node which is an intermediate network node on a customer premises and a first provider node which is an intermediate network node on a first provider network of a first service provider different from the customer; sending a first message to indicate credentials for the particular customer node, the credentials including data indicating a model for the particular customer node, data indicating a serial number for the particular customer node, data indicating a version of operating system software instructions used by the particular customer node, and data indicating network interfaces to be configured on the particular customer node, wherein the credentials are used to confirm that the particular customer node is authorized to receive configuration data based on the credentials; receiving configuration data for one or more network interfaces on the particular customer node through the physical layer network connection with the particular provider node, wherein the configuration data includes an encapsulation parameter, a security parameter, and a class of service parameter that includes a latency characteristic and a bandwidth characteristic; and configuring the particular customer node based on configuration data received through the physical layer network connection, wherein the configuring comprises configuring the one or more network interfaces for communication using the configuration data.