METHODS, APPARATUS AND DATA STRUCTURES FOR PROVIDING ACCESS TO AN EDGE ROUTER OF A NETWORK

摘要

An aggregation unit (1010) to aggregate physical connections (1050) from customers (1030) for presentation to an access router (812). These functions may be accomplished by configuring ports (1040) of the aggregation unit (1010) such that each has a unique identifier (or context information) in the place of information (e.g., the layer 2 address) originally in the layer 2 header. The layer 2 (e.g., MAC) address of the customer (1030) device connected with the port (1040) can be associated with, and therefore determined from, the IP address of the attached device. If the IP addresses are dynamically assigned to customer (1030) devices, then the aggregation unit (1010) may periodically poll (e.g., via an address resolution protocol or "ARP" broadcast) the attached device(s) for its layer 2 (e.g., MAC) address and/or may examine address information of inbound packets (e.g., snooping).