Patent ID: 7443883

Claim:
A method of providing customer premise equipment (CPE) code to one or more pieces of CPE in a cable network having a plurality of headend units for delivering signals to a plurality of pieces of CPE, the method comprising: storing the CPE code at a national code repository (NCR); issuing a transport type inquiry from the NCR to a plurality of the headend units to determine transport types supported therewith; generating metadata to support the transport types indicated in responses to the transport type inquiry; associating the metadata with the CPE code in order to specify transmission protocols required for the transport types supported by the headend units for delivering the CPE code to the CPE; transporting the CPE code and metadata to headend units for delivery to the CPE; and determining CPE device controller information for the headend units, the CPE device controller information specifying operating parameters for the CPE, and selecting the metadata to support the operating parameters specified in the CPE device controller information.