Patent ID: 8036530

Claim:
A method for transporting DOCSIS information over a passive optical network, comprising: identifying a optical network unit associated with a customer premise device that is attempting to register with a CMTS, wherein the customer premise device interfaces with the PON via the optical network unit and the CMTS interfaces with the PON via an optical line terminal; sending DHCP discovery and request messages to a DHCP server, wherein the MAC address of the optical network unit associated with the customer premise device attempting to register is used in a client address field in the discovery and request messages; and sending a reply message from the DHCP server that contains IP configuration information based on the MAC address of the optical network unit associated with the CPE attempting to register, wherein the reply message from the DHCP server comprises: a management IP address for the optical network unit associated with the customer premise equipment device attempting to register; a name of a configuration file associated with the optical network unit associated the customer premise equipment device attempting to register; and an IP address of a TFTP server where a configuration file associated with the customer premise equipment device attempting to register is stored.