Remote circuit provisioning

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.