System and method for management of ethernet premise devices

1. A method for managing customer premise equipment (CPE) devices, the method comprising:

issuing a wake signal to a CPE device;

communicating action parameters to the CPE device in response to receiving acknowledgement of the wake signal from the CPE device;

establishing a management session with the CPE device utilizing an address for secure communications in response to the CPE device acknowledging the action parameters, wherein the establishing of the management session occurs at layer two of the open systems interconnection (OSI) model;

communicating through the management session to perform operation, administration and maintenance of the CPE device, wherein the communicating occurs at layer three of the OSI model; and

terminating the management session with the CPE device.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

establishing the management session is required for secure communications with the CPE device.

3. The method according to claim 1 , the establishing is performed utilizing a predetermined time period.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the issuing, communicating, establishing, and communicating are an extension of the IEEE 802.3ah standard.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the address is a media access control (MAC) address for communication with the CPE device.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein terminating further comprises:

issuing a termination command to the CPE device;

releasing the address utilized for the management session; and

sending termination parameters to the CPE device to terminate the management session.

7. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising;

establishing encryption for the management session.

8. A system for managing CPE devices, the system comprising:

a communications management system in communications with a communications network;

a CPE device in communication with the communications management system, wherein the communications management system is operable to issue a wake signal to the CPE device, communicate action parameters to the CPE device in response to receive acknowledgement of the wake signal from the CPE device, establish a management session with the CPE device utilizing a management address for secure communications in response to the CPE device acknowledging the action parameters, communicate through the management session to perform an operation on the CPE device, and send a termination command to end the management session with the CPE device;

wherein the CPE device acknowledges the wake signal, initiates a DHCP request in response to receiving the action parameters, obtains the management address, and terminates the management session in response to receiving the termination command;

wherein the CPE device manages a plurality of devices on a customer network in response to commands received from the communications management system to perform the operation; and

wherein the management address is assigned only for the CPE device actively managed, wherein the commands received from the communications management system to perform the operation may only passed to the CPE devices through the management address.

9. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the CPE device initiates a DHCP release sequence and removes information associated with the management address from an operating system of the CPE device in response to the termination command; and

sends a session complete command to the communications management system to terminate the management session.

10. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the CPE device terminates the management session in response to receiving acknowledgement from the management session that a session complete command is received and receiving termination parameters from the communications management system.

11. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the communications management system communicates with a plurality of CPE devices utilizing concurrent management sessions.

12. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the management session is established at a predetermined time period or in response to receiving an alert from the CPE device.