Patent ID: 8010636

Claim:
A method performed in a network device, the method comprising: receiving a broadband card; loading one or more model-specific plug-ins, provided in the network device, in a broadband card detector; determining that none of the one or more model-specific plug-ins detect the broadband card; determining that no other model-specific plug-in is provided in the network device; loading, upon the determination that no other model-specific plug-in is provided in the network device, a vendor-specific plug-in associated with a particular vendor and provided in the network device, in the broadband card detector; determining that the vendor-specific plug-in fails to detect the broadband card; loading, when the vendor-specific plug-in fails to detect the broadband card, at least one other vendor-specific plug-in associated with at least one other vendor and provided in the network device, in the broadband card detector; determining that the at least one other vendor-specific plug-in fails to detect broadband card; determining that no other vendor-specific plug-in is provided in the network device; loading, upon the determination that no other vendor-specific plug-in is provided in the network device, at least one of a vendor-specific generic plug-in or a generic plug-in in the broadband card detector; and using the at least one of the vendor-specific generic plug-in or the generic plug-in to certify the broadband card.