Excluding firmware upgrade traffic from customer provisioned bandwidth
Various embodiments comprise systems, methods, architectures, mechanisms and apparatus for configuring CPE provisioning to provide a dynamic service flow so as to temporarily enable augmented bandwidth capabilities and Quality of Service (QoS) sufficient to support firmware updates and the like to the CPE (or CPE-supported equipment), and to do so without utilizing customer bandwidth or disrupting customer service or Quality of Experience (QoE).
1 . A method of upgrading a remote device, comprising:
responsive to an upgrade notification associated with the remote device, determining whether a quality of service (QoS) of provisioned service associated with the remote device is sufficient to support an upgrade;
responsive to the QoS being insufficient to support the upgrade, determining whether the remote device is associated with a bandwidth augmentation qualification;
responsive to the determining indicating that the remote device is associated with the bandwidth augmentation qualification, creating a dynamic service flow associated with the remote device and sufficient to support the upgrade, the creating of the dynamic service flow comprising temporarily enabling one or more augmented bandwidth capabilities to support the upgrade without utilizing customer bandwidth; and
responsive to an upgrade completed notification, terminating the dynamic service flow associated with the remote device;
wherein the dynamic service flow augments bandwidth available for the upgrade in a manner that obviates a race condition in which the upgrade cannot proceed until the remote device is placed on an account to obtain additional bandwidth, but placement on the account cannot proceed until the remote device is on updated firmware.
2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
responsive to a failure to receive an upgrade completed notification within a predefined time period, terminating the dynamic service flow associated with the remote device.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the temporarily enabling of the one or more augmented bandwidth capabilities and the QOS sufficient to support the upgrade without utilizing the customer bandwidth comprises preventing allocation to customer bandwidth usage of any bandwidth used by the dynamic service flow.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the creating of the dynamic service flow is configured to avoid disruption of customer service.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the creating of the dynamic service flow has associated with it a QoS level sufficient to support the upgrade.
6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the QoS level of the dynamic service flow is sufficient to enable the download of upgrade data within a maximum download time.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the bandwidth augmentation qualification comprises at least one of the remote device being a newly installed device and a device associated with low speed provisioning.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the bandwidth augmentation qualification comprises the remote device being associated with a quarantined customer account.
9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the remote device comprises customer premises equipment (CPE) at a customer location, or equipment proximate the CPE at the customer location.
10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the upgrade comprises a firmware upgrade of the remote device.
11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein determining whether the provisioned service associated with the remote device is sufficient to support the upgrade comprises determining whether the CPE at the customer location is associated with a quarantined customer account.
12 . The method of claim 10 , wherein determining whether the provisioned service associated with the remote device is sufficient to support the upgrade comprises determining whether the firmware upgrade may be downloaded to the remote device as a single file.
13 . Network management equipment (NME) configured for managing and upgrading customer premises equipment (CPE) within a network and including a CPE provisioning server configured to provision CPE network services, the NME configured for:
responsive to an upgrade notification associated with a CPE, determining whether a quality of service (QoS) of provisioned service associated with the CPE is sufficient to support an upgrade;
responsive to the QoS being insufficient to support the upgrade, determining whether the CPE is associated with a bandwidth augmentation qualification, the bandwidth augmentation qualification comprising the CPE not being associated with a customer account;
responsive to the determining indicating that the CPE is associated with the bandwidth augmentation qualification, creating a dynamic service flow associated with the CPE and sufficient to support the upgrade, wherein the dynamic service flow augments bandwidth available for the upgrade to resolve a race condition in which: (i) the CPE cannot be placed on the customer account until the CPE is on updated firmware, and (ii) the updated firmware cannot be downloaded until the CPE is provisioned and activated on the customer account to permit additional bandwidth;
preventing allocation to customer bandwidth usage of any bandwidth used by the dynamic service flow; and
responsive to an upgrade completed notification, terminating the dynamic service flow associated with the CPE.
14 . The NME of claim 13 , further configured for:
responsive to a failure to receive an upgrade completed notification within a predefined time period, terminating the dynamic service flow associated with the CPE.
15 . The NME of claim 13 , wherein the dynamic service flow is configured to avoid disruption of customer service.
16 . The NME of claim 13 , wherein the dynamic service flow has associated with it a quality of service (QoS) level sufficient to support the upgrade.
17 . The NME of claim 16 , wherein the QoS level of the dynamic service flow is sufficient to enable download of upgrade data within a maximum download time.
18 . The NME of claim 13 , wherein a firmware orchestrator microservice is configured to initiate CPE upgrades and terminate dynamic service flows associated with the CPE upgrades.
19 . A computer implemented method of upgrading a remote device, comprising:
responsive to an upgrade notification associated with the remote device, determining whether a quality of service (QoS) of provisioned service associated with the remote device is sufficient to support an upgrade;
responsive to the QoS being insufficient to support the upgrade, determining whether the remote device is associated with a bandwidth augmentation qualification, the bandwidth augmentation qualification comprising the remote device not yet being on a customer account;
responsive to determining that the remote device is associated with the bandwidth augmentation qualification, creating a dynamic service flow associated with the remote device and sufficient to support the upgrade, wherein the creating of the dynamic service flow comprises augmenting bandwidth available for the upgrade in a manner that does not count towards bandwidth associated with use of a network by the remote device and that resolves a race condition in which (i) the remote device cannot be placed on the customer account until the remote device is on updated firmware, and (ii) the updated firmware cannot be downloaded until the remote device is provisioned and activated on the customer account to permit additional bandwidth; and
responsive to an upgrade completed notification, terminating the dynamic service flow associated with the remote device.