Patent ID: 8139606

Claim:
A method for providing switched broadband, the method comprising: creating a traffic signature corresponding to a network element connected to a network, the network element having a network element ID and being addressable on the network by the network element ID, the traffic signature indicating how multiple quality of service profiles that are active on the network element are performing on the network element, the multiple quality of service profiles respectively corresponding to a plurality of end-use devices connected to and being active on the network element wherein creating the traffic signature further comprises creating the traffic signature comprising a profile, at a network element level, of packet size and protocol distribution on a service class name level at a service flow level in data-over-cable service interface specification (DOCSIS); and optimizing a quality of service for the network element based on the created traffic signature, wherein optimizing the quality of service for the network element comprises adjusting the multiple quality of service profiles to optimize services corresponding to the multiple quality of service profiles active on the network element to optimize bandwidth utilization at the network element level wherein adjusting the multiple quality of service profiles comprises giving the network element more bandwidth, providing at least one of the multiple quality of service profiles with less jitter and latency, and tweaking other quality of service parameters that yield a performance gain at the network element while optimizing the bandwidth utilization at the network element level.