Patent ID: 8453216

Claim:
A Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS), comprising; a processing device; and a memory coupled to the processing device comprising instructions executable by the processing device, the processing device operable when executing the instructions to: receive, from a cable modem over a cable network, an authentication request, which initiates an authentication process involving the cable modem, the CMTS, and a remote server; communicate a network certificate to the cable modem; receive, from the cable modem, an authorization response including a device identification for the cable modem and at least one authentication criteria, the authorization response including a portion of the authentication process, wherein the authentication process comprises: extracting a forwarding message from the authorization response; sending the forwarding message to the remote server, receiving back from the remote server an authorization message to establish a session key on the cable modem having the device identification; forwarding a representation of the authorization message to the cable modem or equipment downstream from the cable modem; complete ranging with the cable modem before performing the authentication process; and register the cable modem as an authenticated cable modem after the authentication process.