Patent ID: 8305928

Claim:
In a communication device having interface circuitry with its own unique identifier and processing circuitry with its own unique identifier, and after initializing the interface circuitry and the processor circuitry, a method for emulating one, or more, processing circuitry instances, comprising the steps: A. transmitting a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) request using a selected MAC (Medium Access Control) address for a corresponding selected virtual MTA (Media Terminal Adaptor) instance; B. receiving a DHCP response that includes an IP (Internet Protocol) address assigned to the selected virtual MTA instance; C. transmitting a request for configuration information for the selected virtual MTA instance; D. receiving configuration information for the selected virtual MTA instance; and E. registering the selected virtual MTA with a call server using the received configuration file corresponding to the selected virtual MTA instance; repeating steps A through E for each of multiple virtual MTA instances supported by a single physical MTA of the device.