Patent ID: 7289488

Claim:
A method for managing asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) connections between a digital subscriber line add-drop multiplexer (DSLAM) and customer premises equipment, comprising: establishing a plurality of ATM connections with customer premises equipment, the step of establishing each ATM connection comprising: receiving a request for an ATM connection with unrecognized customer premises equipment at a DSLAM; establishing the ATM connection between the DSLAM and the unrecognized customer premises equipment; associating the ATM connection with a status, the status comprising three possible states, the three possible states comprising an unverified state, a verified state, and an invalid state, wherein the verified state indicates that the connection is allowed full access to a network, the unverified state indicates that the connection is allowed conditional access to the network, and the invalid state indicates that the connection is not allowed to access the network; and setting the status of the ATM connection to unverified; authenticating each of the ATM connections, the step of authenticating comprising: authenticating the customer premises equipment associated with each connection; if the unrecognized customer premises equipment is authenticated, setting the status of the connection to verified; and if the unrecognized customer premises equipment is not authenticated, setting the status of the connection to invalid; providing access to the network to each ATM connection according to the current status of the ATM connection; receiving a packet from the network having an unrecognized destination; identifying all of the ATM connections that have a status of verified; generating a copy of the packet for each of the verified ATM connections; and communicating one of the copies of the packet in the form of ATM cells to the customer premises equipment associated with each of the verified ATM connections.