Patent ID: 8675488

Claim:
A service node device for providing subscriber-specific services upstream from an access router of an access network and coupled by a communication link to an external session and resource controller (SRC) that manages application services applied at the service node, the service node device comprising: a network interface to receive an initial packet of a packet flow associated with a subscriber device attached to the access network, wherein the initial packet includes a network address dynamically assigned to the subscriber device by an authentication server upon attachment of the subscriber device to the access network, and wherein the service node device does not store a subscriber identifier associated with the network address when the initial packet is received; a packet-triggered subscriber and policy interface (PTSP) client to generate a message that includes the network address but does not include a subscriber identifier associated with the network address, wherein the PTSP client sends the message to the external SRC to request an enforcement policy for the network address; wherein the PTSP client receives, from the external SRC and in response to the message, the enforcement policy, wherein the enforcement policy represents a subscriber-specific service mapped to the network address by the external SRC; and a services unit to apply the enforcement policy to the packet flow.