Patent ID: 7181499

Claim:
A method for distributing software in an optical communications network from a software source to at least one receiving network element through a gateway network element, the method comprising: sending an initialization request from the software source to the gateway network element; establishing a download channel at the gateway network element for the at least one receiving network element, the gateway network element confirming establishment of the download channel with the software source and submitting a port identifier to the software source when a default port identifier has not previously been established on the gateway network element for downloads to the at least one receiving network element; sending a download request from the software source to the at least one receiving network element; the at least one receiving network element accessing the download channel and sending a confirmation of access to the download channel to the software source; downloading the software to the gateway network element using transfer encoded software blocks in a stream; stripping the transfer encoded portion from the transfer encoded software blocks such that the at least one receiving network element receives only download data; and forwarding the software from the gateway network element to the at least one receiving network element if the at least one receiving network element confirms access to the download channel; and wherein the gateway network element monitors the software forwarding and throttles the software forwarding if a forwarding rate exceeds a threshold.