Cisco Cisco Broadband Access Center for Cable 4.1
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Cisco Broadband Access Center for Cable Administrator’s Guide
OL-2445-02
Chapter 1 Broadband Access Center for Cable Overview
Device Provisioning Engine
The DPE manages these activities:
•
Last step device configuration generation (DOCSIS timestamps for instance)
•
Communication of the configuration files through an embedded TFTP server
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Integration with Cisco Network Registrar
•
Time of day protocol server
•
PacketCable provisioning services
This section describes these major DPE components:
•
DPE server assignments
•
TFTP server
•
Provisioning groups
DPE Server Assignments
BAC supports multiple DPE servers. These servers communicate with devices, a DHCP failover server
configuration, and the RDU. During installation, you must make these DPE server assignments:
configuration, and the RDU. During installation, you must make these DPE server assignments:
•
Assign a DPE server to be responsible for one or more logical groups of devices.
•
The IP address and port number of the RDU.
The DPE’s primary objective is to send configurations to customer devices whenever those devices are
powered up or rebooted. To do this quickly, the DPE keeps a copy of the configuration for each device
in a local cache database. Usually the DPE only has to add in a few minor pieces of information to the
configuration, such as a current IP address of the device and one or more security checks, before it
provides the configuration to the device.
powered up or rebooted. To do this quickly, the DPE keeps a copy of the configuration for each device
in a local cache database. Usually the DPE only has to add in a few minor pieces of information to the
configuration, such as a current IP address of the device and one or more security checks, before it
provides the configuration to the device.
TFTP Server
The integrated TFTP server receives requests for files, including DOCSIS configuration files, both from
device and non device entities. This server then transmits the file to the requesting entity.
device and non device entities. This server then transmits the file to the requesting entity.
Provisioning Groups
A provisioning group is designed to be a regional grouping of servers usually consisting of a two or more
DPEs and a failover pair of DHCP servers that can handle the provisioning needs of up to 500 thousand
devices. As the number of devices grows past 500 thousand, you can add additional provisioning groups
to the deployment.
DPEs and a failover pair of DHCP servers that can handle the provisioning needs of up to 500 thousand
devices. As the number of devices grows past 500 thousand, you can add additional provisioning groups
to the deployment.
Note
The servers for a provisioning group are not required to reside at a regional location, they can just as
easily be deployed in the central NOC.
easily be deployed in the central NOC.
To support redundancy and load sharing each provisioning group can support any number of DPEs. As
the requests come in from the DHCP servers, they are distributed between the DPEs in the provisioning
group in a round-robin fashion so that any one DPE does not get overloaded with all the requests. The
the requests come in from the DHCP servers, they are distributed between the DPEs in the provisioning
group in a round-robin fashion so that any one DPE does not get overloaded with all the requests. The