Remote circuit provisioning

Abstract

A machine readable medium for remote circuit provisioning is described. In one embodiment of the invention, a machine readable medium comprises receiving a packet on a circuit and provisioning the circuit in response to receiving the packet, wherein provisioning the circuit comprises retrieving parameters from a database, creating an empty circuit structure, and populating the empty circuit structure with the parameters.

1 - 39 . (canceled)  
     
     
         40 . A machine readable medium that provides instructions, which when executed by a set of processors, cause said set of processors to perform operations comprising: 
 receiving a packet on a circuit in a network element; and    provisioning the circuit in the network element in response to said receiving the packet on the circuit.    
     
     
         41 . The machine readable medium of  claim 40 , wherein the circuit is associated with a listening circuit structure before the packet is received on the circuit, and the circuit is disassociated from the listening circuit structure after the packet is received on the circuit.  
     
     
         42 . The machine readable medium of  claim 40 , wherein provisioning the circuit comprises: 
 identifying the circuit;    creating a provisioned circuit structure for the circuit; and    associating the circuit to the provisioned circuit structure.    
     
     
         43 . The machine readable medium of  claim 42 , wherein creating the provisioned circuit structure comprises: 
 retrieving a set of parameters corresponding to the circuit from a database; and    populating an empty circuit structure with the set of parameters.    
     
     
         44 . The machine readable medium of  claim 40 , further comprising unprovisioning the circuit upon a subscriber ending event.  
     
     
         45 . A machine readable medium that provides instructions, which when executed by a set of processors, cause said set of processors to perform operations comprising: 
 configuring a set of circuit as listening circuits in a network element;    receiving a packet on one of the set of listening circuits;    provisioning the one of the set of listening circuits in response to said receiving the packet on one of the set of listening circuits; and    processing a set of subsequent packets received on the provisioned one of the set of listening circuits.    
     
     
         46 . The machine readable medium of  claim 45 , wherein provisioning the one of the set of listening circuits comprises: 
 retrieving a set of parameters for the one of the set of listening circuits from a database; and    provisioning the one of the set of listening circuits with the set of parameters.    
     
     
         47 . The machine readable medium of  claim 45 , wherein configuring the set of circuits as listening circuits comprises associating the set of listening circuits to a single circuit structure, this single circuit structure being a circuit structure having an indicator indicating the circuit structure as a listening circuit structure.  
     
     
         48 . The machine readable medium of  claim 45  further comprising unprovisioning the provisioned one in response to a subscriber ending event.  
     
     
         49 . A machine readable medium that provides instructions, which when executed by a set of processors, cause said set of processors to perform operations comprising: 
 listening for a packet over a set of configured circuits in a network element;    receiving the packet on one of the set of configured circuits;    identifying the one of the set of configured circuits;    signaling a routine that the packet has been detected on the one of the set of configured circuits;    retrieving a set of parameters for the one of the set of configured circuits from a database;    creating an empty circuit structure for the one of the set of configured circuits;    populating the empty circuit structure with the set of parameters, the populated empty circuit structure becoming a provisioned circuit structure; and    associating a set of subsequent packets received on the one of the set of listening circuits with the provisioned circuit structure.    
     
     
         50 . The machine readable medium of  claim 49 , wherein listening for the packet over the set of configured circuits comprises associating the set of configured circuits to a listening circuit structure.  
     
     
         51 . The machine readable medium of  claim 49 , wherein signaling the routine comprises passing the routine the listening circuit structure, the listening circuit structure identifying the one of the set of configured circuits.  
     
     
         52 . The machine readable medium of  claim 49 , wherein the database can be a remote database or a local database.  
     
     
         53 . The machine readable medium of  claim 49  further comprising releasing the provisioned circuit structure and listening for a new packet over the one of the set of configured circuits in response to a subscriber ending event.  
     
     
         54 . A machine readable medium that provides instructions, which when executed by a set of processors, cause said set of processors to perform operations comprising: 
 indicating a circuit structure as a listening circuit structure in a network element;    associating a set of configured circuits with the listening circuit structure;    receiving a packet on one circuit of the set of configured circuits;    provisioning the one circuit in response to said receiving the packet on the one circuit; and    accepting a set of subsequent packets received on the provisioned circuit.    
     
     
         55 . The machine readable medium of  claim 54  further comprising discarding a set of packets transmitted over an unconfigured circuit, the unconfigured circuit not being associated with the listening circuit structure.  
     
     
         56 . The machine readable medium of  claim 54 , wherein provisioning the one circuit comprises: 
 identifying the one circuit with a circuit handle;    retrieving a set of parameters corresponding to the circuit handle from a database;    creating an empty circuit structure; and    populating the empty circuit structure with the set of parameters.    
     
     
         57 . The machine readable medium of  claim 56 , wherein the database can be a local database or a remote database.  
     
     
         58 . The machine readable medium of  claim 54  further comprising unprovisioning the one circuit and indicating the one circuit as the listening circuit structure in response to a subscriber ending event.  
     
     
         59 . A network element comprising: 
 a network card having a port to couple a set of circuits; and    a computer coupled to the network card, the computer to provision one circuit of the set of circuits in response to receiving a packet on the one circuit.    
     
     
         60 . The network element of  claim 59  further comprising a remote database to store parameters for provisioning the one circuit.  
     
     
         61 . The network element of  claim 59 , wherein the computer comprises: 
 a database to store a set of parameters;    a memory element to store a listening circuit structure and a set of provisioned circuit structures; and    an operating system to associate a set of the set of circuits with the listening circuit structure, and to provision the one circuit.    
     
     
         62 . The network element of  claim 61  wherein to provision the one circuit comprises: 
 to identify the one circuit;    to disassociate the one circuit from the listening circuit structure;    to create an empty circuit structure;    to populate the empty circuit structure with the set of configuration parameters, making the empty circuit structure a provisioned circuit structure; and    to associate the one circuit to the provisioned circuit structure.    
     
     
         63 . The network element of a  claim 59  further comprising the computer to unprovision one circuit of the set of circuits in response to a subscriber ending event.  
     
     
         64 . An apparatus comprising: 
 a port to couple a set of circuits;    a memory element to store a listening circuit structure and a set of provisioned circuit structures;    a database to store a set of parameters for a subset of the set of circuits; and    a computer to provision one of the subset of circuits.    
     
     
         65 . The apparatus of  claim 64 , wherein the database can be a local or remote database.  
     
     
         66 . The apparatus of  claim 64 , wherein the computer to provision the one of the set of circuits comprises: 
 retrieving the set of parameters corresponding to the one circuit from the database;    creating an empty circuit structure for the one circuit, and    populating the empty circuit structure with the set of configuration parameters.    
     
     
         67 . The apparatus of  claim 64 , wherein the computer provisions one of the subset of circuits in response to a packet being detected on the one circuit.  
     
     
         68 . The apparatus of  claim 64  further comprising unprovisioning the one of the subset of circuits in response to a subscriber ending event.  
     
     
         69 . An apparatus comprising: 
 a port to couple a set of circuits;    a memory element to store a set of circuit structures;    a storage to store a set of parameters; and    a computer to provision one circuit of the set of circuits in response to a packet being received on the one circuit.    
     
     
         70 . The apparatus of  claim 69 , wherein one of the set of circuit structures is a listening circuit structure.  
     
     
         71 . The apparatus of  claim 69 , wherein the storage can be a local or remote storage.  
     
     
         72 . The apparatus of  claim 69 , wherein the computer to provision one circuit of the set of circuits comprises: 
 to identify the one circuit;    to retrieve the set of parameters corresponding to the identified one circuit from the storage;    to create an empty circuit structure for the one circuit, and    to populate the empty circuit structure with the set of parameters.    
     
     
         73 . The apparatus of  claim 69  further comprising unprovisioning the one circuit of the set of circuits in response to a subscriber ending event.  
     
     
         74 . A computer implemented method comprising: 
 receiving a packet on a circuit in a network element; and    provisioning the circuit in the network element in response to said receiving the packet on the circuit.    
     
     
         75 . The method of  claim 74 , wherein the circuit is associated with a listening circuit structure before the packet is received on the circuit, and the circuit is disassociated from the listening circuit structure after the packet is received on the circuit.  
     
     
         76 . The method of  claim 74 , wherein provisioning the circuit comprises: 
 identifying the circuit;    creating a provisioned circuit structure for the circuit; and    associating the circuit to the provisioned circuit structure.    
     
     
         77 . The method of  claim 74  further comprising unprovisioning the circuit upon a subscriber ending event.  
     
     
         78 . The method of  claim 76  wherein creating the provisioned circuit structure comprises: 
 retrieving a set of parameters corresponding to the circuit from a database; and    populating an empty circuit structure with the set of parameters.    
     
     
         79 . An apparatus comprising: 
 a network element including, 
 an interface to be coupled to a circuit;  
 a control process module operative to provision the circuit in response to receiving a packet on the circuit.  
   
     
     
         80 . The apparatus of  claim 79 , wherein the control process module further operative to associate the circuit with a listening circuit structure before the packet is received on the circuit, and the circuit is disassociated from the listening circuit structure after the packet is received on the circuit.  
     
     
         81 . The apparatus of  claim 79 , wherein the control process module to provision the circuit is operative to identify the circuit, create a provisioned circuit structure for the circuit, and associate the circuit to the provisioned circuit structure.  
     
     
         82 . The apparatus of  claim 81 , wherein the control process module to create the provisioned circuit structure is operative to retrieve a set of parameters corresponding to the circuit from a database and populate an empty circuit structure with the set of parameters.  
     
     
         83 . The apparatus of  claim 82 , wherein the control process module is operative to unprovision the circuit in response to a subscriber ending event.