Patent ID: 8089953

Claim:
A method for automatically configuring at least one network entity for participation in a network, said at least one network entity being associated with at least one service provider, said method comprising the steps of: assigning an identifier to said at least one network entity, wherein said identifier being any of a unique identifier or a class identifier; associating said identifier with at least one service provider; providing a central server having a reference table for mapping said identifiers to at least one of said service providers, providing a configuration server associated with each of said service providers, said configuration server having configuration settings data for said at least one network entity; including in a non-transitory computer-readable medium of said at least one network entity comprising instructions executable by a processor to cause said processor to perform the steps of communicating with said central server or said configuration server; causing said at least one network entity to automatically request configuration settings data from said central server when coupled to said network, said request including said network entity's identifier; receiving said request at said central server and determining which of said at least one of said service providers is associated with said identifier; said central server redirecting said request to an appropriate configuration server having said configuration settings data specific to said identifier; said configuration server providing said configuration settings data to said at least one network entity; and wherein said configuration settings data comprises device specific configuration information, and platform specific configuration information, including any of type of device, carrier, service, or enterprise system information, central server(s) uniform resource identifiers (URI(s)), configuration server(s) uniform resource identifiers (URI(s)), port assignments, registration information, dial plan, network time protocol (NTP) time settings, soft-keys, extensible markup language (XML) services and applications, session initiation protocol (SIP) registration information, usernames and passwords, phone book directory, speaker volume settings; and whereby said at least one network entity is automatically configured without user intervention except to power-on and connect said at least one network entity to said network in order to contact said central server.