SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATIC PROVISIONING OF ONSITE NETWORKING SERVICES
The system and method described herein may activate an automatic provisioning system within customer premise equipment via a digital subscriber line, cable modem, or other residential hub or gateway interface and access a remote directory service to locate appropriate addressing and other information to initialize the customer premise equipment. The gateway interface may automatically update a configuration, heal bugs, and perform other maintenance and tasks to manage the customer premise equipment. Multiple gateway interfaces or products or services associated therewith may be configured at one premise and version control may be maintained to ensure compatibility.
This application claims priority from a provisional application of the same title filed on May 1, 2000 and assigned application number 60/200,759.
FIELD OF INVENTIONThe invention relates to the field of networking, and more particularly to enabling automatic provisioning of CPE (Customer Premise Equipment) for efficient delivery of network-based services.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThe pervasiveness of Internet and other network technology has led to increasing quantities and varieties of network-based services. Residential and business consumers seeking to take advantage of these services require a gateway, hub, or other type of CPE (Customer Premise Equipment) for interfacing to the Internet or other network. Unfortunately, when a CPE is initially installed, a number of complicated and time-consuming operations must be undertaken, such as to configure IP addresses, establish TCP/IP sockets, stacks or other protocol support. Such operations often can only be performed by a technician or programmer with the special skills and equipment. Moreover, changes in services or end-user equipment may require that the CPE be periodically reconfigured. These configuration obstacles reduce the attractiveness of on-premise network products in general, and the installation of CPE (Customer Premise Equipment) in particular. These and other drawbacks exist.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe invention overcoming these and other problems in the art relates to a system and method for automatic provisioning of onsite networking services which alleviate the need for manual configuration of CPE, in part by establishing a connection between the CPE to be installed and a remote directory service dedicated to management and automated configuration of the device, in whole or part, without necessary intervention by a system administrator, technician, or end user.
An object of the invention in one regard is to provide a CPE interface containing preprogrammed provisioning information to detect and transmit IP address and other resources, or to provision the ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) virtual circuit from a home or other site.
Another object of the invention is to provide a CPE interface and associated directory service which may periodically maintain and update the configuration settings on the CPE interface, such as for debugging, self-healing or service upgrade purposes.
Another object of the invention is to provide a remote directory service which is capable of detecting, identifying and servicing a variety of different types of CPE interface hardware, such as cable modems, ISDN, DSL or other products or services.
Another object of the invention is to provide a remote directory service which is capable of detecting, identifying and managing video, firewall, or other value-added services that can run on the CPE interface hardware.
The invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like elements are referenced with like numbers.
In general, the invention relates to the installation, configuration, or provisioning of Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) 100, which may be connected to end-user appliances 130 and to a directory service 160 via communication links 120, as depicted in
CPE 100 provides an interface between sources of network-based services and end-user appliances 130. CPE 100 may be or include, for instance, a residential or business gateway, hub, router or other device that is sold or leased by telephone carriers, Internet Service Providers or others that is installed in residences, office buildings, or other premises for delivery of network-based services to end-user appliances 130. CPE 100 may further include a processor 102 that may be or include, for example, a microprocessor such as an Intel x86-based device, a Motorola 68K or PowerPC™ device, a MIPS, Hewlett-Packard Precision™, or Digital Equipment Corp. Alpha™ RISC processor, a microcontroller, a digital signal processor (DSP), or other general or special purpose device operating under programmed control. CPE 100 may also include local data store 104 which may be implemented as RAM (random access memory) or EPROM (electronically programmable read only memory), hard drive storage, CDROM or rewritable CDROM or other magnetic, optical or other media, and other associated components connected over an electronic bus, as will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art.
End-user appliances 130 are devices that interact with network-based services through a CPR End-user appliances 130 may be or include: a WebTV™ unit; a radio-enabled Palm™ Pilot or similar unit; a television set-top box; a networkable game-playing console such as Sony Playstation™ or Sega Dreamcast™; a browser-equipped cellular telephone; a personal computer; a home theater, digital audio system, video player, or other audio or video entertainment appliance; a camera, microphone, motion detector, magnetic switch, or other device employed for surveillance or for other purposes; devices that monitor the operation and use of electric, gas, water, or other utilities; a refrigerator, freezer, dishwasher, washing machine, clothes dryer, microwave, coffee maker, furnace, air conditioner, or other household appliance; and other devices used to transmit or receive executable programs or data.
Directory service 160 may contain configuration data and programs used to provision a CPE 100 for delivery of network-based services to end-user appliances 130. In delivering such services, application code may be executed on CPE 100, end-user appliances 130, or both. Directory service 160 may be a distributed directory service, for example where it manages data on servers 110 and 140 as depicted in
Servers 110 and 140 may be or include, for instance, a workstation running the Microsoft Windows™ NT™, Windows™ 2000, Unix, Linux, Xenix, IBM AIX™, Hewlett-Packard UX™, Novell Netware™, Sun Microsystems Solaris™, OS/2™, BeOS™, Mach, Apache, OpenStep™ or other operating system or platform. Servers 110 and 140 may further include or interface to electronic storage 112 and 142, respectively. Electronic storage 112 and 142 may in turn be, include or interface to, for example, the Oracle™ relational database sold commercially by Oracle Corp. Other databases, such as Informix™, DB2 (Database 2), Sybase or other data storage or query formats, platforms or resources such as OLAP (On Line Analytical Processing), SQL (Standard Query Language), a storage area network (SAN), Microsoft Access™ or others may also be used, incorporated or accessed in the invention.
A console 150 may be utilized to manage the operations of directory service 160. Console 150 may be a Java-based Graphical User Interface (GUI) utility such as Novell ConsoleOne™. Alternatively, console 150 may be implemented with a standard HTML Web browser. Console 150 may run on server 110 and 140, or may, for example, run on a workstation that interfaces to server 110 and 140 via communication link 120.
As depicted in
Not all instances of communication link 120 shown in
The system illustrated in
In the delivery of services, step 202, application code may be executed on CPE 100, end-user appliances 130, or both. Consider, for example, the case where end-user appliance 130 is a power-monitoring device. In this instance, application code may first be sent from directory service 160 to CPE 100, then from CPE 100 to the power-monitoring device. The power-monitoring device may then run the application code and may even communicate directly with the power company. In the embodiment just described, CPE 100 has not executed any application code. In other uses, application code may be executed on both CPE 100 and end-user appliance 130. An example might be the case of on demand video services. Here, CPE 100 may execute code in order to download and store videos that are ordered by an end-user, and perhaps also to track licensing of the video and to perform billing tasks related to video usage. End-user video appliance 130 may also execute code, such as code necessary to interface between an end-user and CPE 100 in order to play, pause, rewind, or fast-forward videos. So, in this case, delivery of services may require that application code run on both CPE 100 and end-user appliance 130.
Over time, a consumer of broadband services may choose to make changes by, for example, subscribing to different broadband services, adding or deleting end-user appliances 130, or by changing CPE 100. Service providers and administrators of the delivery system may also initiate various changes in how services are delivered. Such changes may require reconfiguration of the delivery system shown in
Steps 204 through 220 in
Step 200 provisioning may also enable diagnostic testing at CPE 100, concurrent with the delivery of services in step 202, as shown by step 222. Step 222 may, for example, perform diagnostic testing of CPE 100, end-user appliances 130, or communication link 120. If no errors are found, step 224 may direct that diagnostic testing step 222 continue. If, on the other hand, errors are present, step 224 may direct that the errors be logged in step 226 and cause an alarm to be activated in step 228. After a predetermined time delay or acknowledgement by a user or system administrator, the alarm may be reset in step 230 and the diagnostic testing of step 222 may resume. In an alternative embodiment, diagnostic step 222 may operate only on demand, either under automatic computer control or through manual operation. Diagnostics step 222 may also be combined with a self-healing process for automatically repairing errors, although this embodiment is not depicted in
In an embodiment of the invention not depicted in
As indicated above, application of the invention may involve multiple instances of any given object type. For example, there may be hundreds of different standard service objects 304 made available by hundreds of providers of broadband services. Likewise, there may be millions of hardware information objects 308, identifying each specific application of dozens of different CPE 100 models. Other object types may also have multiple instances.
In step 406, CPE 100 may obtain an IP (Internet Protocol) address from a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server, which may be server 140, for example. To perform this operation, CPE 100 may broadcast a DISCOVER message looking for a DHCP server. A router may direct CPE 100 to an appropriate DHCP server. CPE 100 may then send a REQUEST packet, to which the DHCP server replies with an OFFER. When CPE 100 sends an ACK packet, the DHCP server may assign an IP address to CPE 100 and may further configure other servers for communication with CPE 100.
In an alternative embodiment of step 406, an IP address may be retrieved directly from CPE bootstrap object 310, the IP address having been assigned as part of the initial configuration of CPE 100.
Techniques involving the use of SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) for automatic retrieval of the IP address may also be used as an alternative embodiment of step 406. For example, ILMI (Integrated Local Management Interface) or MMI (Modem Management Interface) tools familiar to those skilled in the art of network management protocols may be employed to transport the IP address from directory 160 to CPE 100.
In yet another embodiment of step 406, IP addressing may be hosted by a DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer), for example by using a LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) agent to retrieve the IP address from policy objects in directory 160, and by relying on ILMI or MMI to transport the IP address to CPE 100.
Once CPE 100 secures an IP address, it may then connect to directory service 160 via the Internet or other instance of communication link 120 in step 408 in order to retrieve global bootstrap object 300 in step 410. As indicated above, global bootstrap object 300 may contain a configuration agent. This agent may be extracted in step 412 and launched in step 414 to perform subsequent tasking in initial CPE provisioning step 200.
In step 416, the agent may determine the appropriate region for the instance of CPE 100 that is being automatically provisioned. In one embodiment of step 416, the agent may use the TCP/IP address obtained from the DHCP server to determine the regional policy to which it is assigned. Suppose, for example, that the DHCP server assigned a TCP/IP address of 151.155.128.25. The agent may build an object search string of 151—155—128_*, perform an LDAP search, and obtain region ID 151—155—128_ProvoSouth_CentralOffice_USWest. In another embodiment of step 416, the agent may use a premise circuit ID to determine the region to which it is assigned. For example, the agent may make an IP multicast or SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) query to a specific port of CPE 100, and receive an ID of 64_YGGA—610271 in response. The agent may then build an LDAP search string of 64_YGGA_* that returns a region ID 64_YGGA_ProvoSouth_CentralOffice_USWest.
Having identified the region, the agent may now retrieve regional policy object 306 in step 422. As shown in
CPE object 500 may represent an instance of CPE 100 in directory 160. Among other things, CPE object 500 may reference the service objects 304, regional policy object 306, and hardware information object 308 that are applicable to that instance of CPE 100. Step 424 illustrates that if the agent can find CPE object 500 in directory 160, then step 402 may direct the process to end at step 434. Otherwise, initial CPE provisioning step 200 may continue in step 426 to create CPE object 500.
There are at least two different embodiments of step 426. In one embodiment, an agent running on CPE 100 may create CPE object 500 (for itself) in directory service 160. In another embodiment of step 426, an agent on a Web server may create CPE object 500. In the latter case, information about CPE 100 may be sent to a Web server or gathered by the Web interface. The Web server agent may also validate that it has sufficient information to complete the operation before storing CPE object 500 in directory service 160.
In step 428, the system searches for the appropriate instance of customer object 502. If customer object 502 is not found, then it may be created, in step 430, according to the same alternative embodiments described for step 426 above. In an alternative embodiment of initial CPE provisioning step 200, there may not be a customer object 502. Instead, all customer information may be included in CPE object 500. It may be advantageous to keep CPE and customer data separate, however, for the case where a single customer has multiple instances of CPE 100.
In step 432, the CPE agent may associate the appropriate hardware information object 308 with the newly created CPE object 500 and customer object 502. In execution of this step, CPE 100 may determine its network circuit identifier, telephone number, or other connection information, in order to make the association with customer object 502.
Then, in step 434, tailored service objects 504 may be created, adapting the applicable standard service objects 304 to the format specified in hardware information object 308 associated with the newly created CPE object 500. Thus, broadband services may be packaged for a specific consumer based on the specific services that he or she has subscribed to, and the specific type of CPE 100 that a consumer is using.
Before these services can be executed, however, it may be necessary that they reside on CPE 100. In step 436, then, at least one instance of regional policy objects 306, hardware information objects 308, CPE objects 500, and tailored service objects 504 may be downloaded from directory 160 to local data store 104. In one embodiment of step 436, ATM VC (Virtual Circuits) may be employed to transport provisioning information from policy objects in directory 160 to CPE 100.
The foregoing description of the invention is illustrative, and variations in configuration and implementation will occur to persons skilled in the art. The scope of the invention is accordingly intended to be limited only by the following claims.
Claims
1-2. (canceled)
3. A method, comprising:
- representing a piece of equipment as a managed object and populating the managed Object to a directory;
- capturing, by the managed object, diagnostics for the piece of equipment; and
- installing a new service to an environment associated with the piece of equipment in response to evaluation of the diagnostics, the new service having testing and monitoring capabilities relevant to the piece of equipment.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein capturing further includes logging errors identified with the diagnostics.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein logging further includes raising an alarm in response to the errors.
6. The method of claim 1 further comprising, initiating a self-healing process to repair the errors.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein capturing further includes initiating diagnostic testing that produces the diagnostics.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein initiating further includes initiating the diagnostic testing on demand.
9. The method of claim 1 further comprising, removing the new service from the environment.
10. The method of claim 1 further comprising, updating a new version of the managed object to the directory.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein the piece of equipment is router, gateway, or hub connected to an end-user appliance within the environment.
12. A method, comprising:
- interfacing a network device to a directory, the directory including a representation for a managed object;
- executing the managed object in an environment of a customer;
- monitoring the managed object for diagnostics: and
- deploying a new service to the environment in response to the diagnostics.
13. The method of claim 12, wherein the network device is one of: a router, a gateway, a proxy, or a hub.
14. The method of claim 12, wherein monitoring further includes initiating a self-healing process in response to an error identified in the diagnostics.
15. The method of claim 12, wherein deploying further includes deploying the new service to the environment in response to an alert raised from evaluation of the diagnostics.
16. The method of claim 12, wherein deploying further includes deploying the new service while the managed object executes and produces continually produces the diagnostics.
17. The method of claim 12, wherein deploying further includes selecting the new service based on evaluation of policy associated with the environment.
18. The method of claim 12, wherein deploying further includes selecting the new service based on information relevant to the customer.
19. The method of claim 12, wherein deploying further includes deploying the new service as one of: a broadband service and an on-demand video service.
20. A system, comprising:
- a directory;
- a server configured and adapted to: i) represent a managed object in the directory, ii) execute the managed object on the server, iii) evaluate diagnostics produced by the managed object, and iv) install a new service to an environment based on the diagnostics.
21. The system of claim 20, wherein the server is further adapted and configured to v) initiate a self-healing process within the environment to remedy an error detected in the evaluation of the diagnostics.
22. The system of claim 20, wherein the server is further adapted and configured, in iv), to select the new service in response to a policy evaluation in view of the diagnostics.
Type: Application
Filed: Jun 23, 2014
Publication Date: Oct 9, 2014
Inventors: Michael L. Buck (Payson, UT), Richard D. Jones (Elk Ridge, UT)
Application Number: 14/311,397