Atreus Systems Corp.

Sonus Networks, Inc.

Patrick Rhude

Richard Burke

Douglas Bellinger

Geoff Stewart

Thomas Phillips

Wendy Raoux

Antonino Argentina

Scott Brookes

Luc Richard

Stephanie Bazin

Andrea Baptiste

Gaetan Delahousse

A system and method automates and simplifies tasks associated with setting up a user self-activating network-based service. A configurable input engine is configured to define the service. The service may, for example, use a plurality of networking devices and/or computing devices. After the service is defined, an offer of the service is published to a user. The offer includes values of commercial terms and/or values of configuration parameters associated with the offer. Upon receiving an acceptance of the offer from the user, the configurable input engine automatically generates activations for the devices to be used by the service. The activations are sent to policy distribution points (PDPs) where the activations are translated into device-specific instructions. The device-specific instructions are in turn sent to the devices (networking devices and/or computing devices) to be configured. The device-specific instructions configure the devices, thereby automatically setting up the service for the user.

System and method for setting up user self-activating network-based services

A 'policy distribution point' (PDP) allows service drivers to be installed remotely and automatically without rebooting the PDP or otherwise interrupting existing network-based services. The exposure of sensitive configuration data to non-secure networks is minimized by placing PDPs close to the devices to be configured. Service drivers on the PDP can be reused to configure multiple devices of the same type. The PDP receives an 'activation' and uses a service driver on the PDP to translate the activation into &#x201c;device-specific instructions.&#x201d; The device-specific instructions are sent to a device and configure the device to set up the network-based service. One or more PDPs can be used to configure both computing device and networking devices to provide a single service.

Policy distribution point for setting up network-based services

A system allows subscribers quickly to self-activate network-based services by automatically configuring network elements. A service provider preconfigures a state machine on a core server. At the time of self-activation, activations are sent to policy distribution points (PDPs) that translate the activations into device-specific instructions, which in turn configure network elements to provide services. The speed of self-activation is increased by generating activations faster in the core server, by translating activations into device-specific instructions faster in the PDPs, and by separating the configuration of the network elements from complex registration steps. Initiation steps that configure network elements are performed faster by an initiation module that reads from, but does not write to, databases. Subscribers perform dynamic service selection using the initiation module. Initiating services faster results in a more enjoyable user experience as subscribers quickly switch back and forth between network-based services.

Initiation module for initiating network-based services

Growing community of inventors

Dunrobin, Canada

Patrick Rhude