Cisco Broadband Access Center (BAC) is a distributed, scalable, subscriber-device-management application that enables automated flow-through provisioning of subscriber services. Cisco BAC provides a centralized, automated platform for service providers to control and configure residential home gateways, as well as IP devices behind the gateways.

Cisco BAC provides a number of important capabilities, including:

• Automatic device recognition
• Ability to assign the appropriate class of service
• Dynamic creation and generation of device configuration files
• Subscriber activation

Cisco BAC provides a single device management platform to support multiple technologies including DOCSIS®, PacketCable™, CableHome™, satellite, and SIP.

As service provider infrastructures increase in size and complexity, management systems that enable and simplify network operations and services become more essential. Cisco BAC addresses this need by automating the configuration and provisioning of subscriber devices based on service provider business policies. Cisco BAC allows service providers to implement one or both of the following workflow models:

• Preprovisioning--Devices are assigned to subscribers and recorded in the provisioning application in advance. The subscriber plugs in the devices, and Cisco BAC automatically assigns the appropriate service level and activates them.
• Autoprovisioning--When subscribers self-register for service, subscriber devices are captured and recorded in the provisioning application. The subscriber is forced to register for service before Cisco BAC configures the device and activates the services.
• Cisco Broadband Access Center is a fast, secure, and scalable system for provisioning and managing tiered services on devices. This application is designed for:
  
  • Reliability--Cisco BAC provides high reliability and high availability supporting autonomous headends, multiple distributed device provisioning engines (DPEs), each of which includes its own data-caching repository, a Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) server, and a Time-of-Day (ToD) server. During central server outages or communication problems, Cisco BAC provides continual service to existing registered subscribers.
  • Scalability and performance--Cisco BAC can support millions of devices in distributed deployments by using multiple distributed device management and caching engines to balance processing of device requests. A single DPE can support as many as 1,000,000 devices. These DPEs can be combined in groups to provide redundancy and load sharing. Cisco BAC includes a central component called a regional distribution unit (RDU) to handle service requests and modifications. A single enterprise-class RDU server in conjunction with the appropriate number of DPE groups can support as many as 35 million devices with a sustained rate of hundreds of thousands of new devices a day.
  • Integration with current systems—Cisco BAC integrates with existing service provider systems, such as billing systems, operations support systems (OSSs), and other customer management systems through a Java provisioning application programming interface (API). It can also notify interested applications of certain events within the system through an event-notification registration procedure.
  • Extendable technology support—Cisco BAC supports DOCSIS cable modems and set-top boxes for high speed data provisioning, PacketCable voice provisioning of media termination adapters (MTAs), DOCSIS cable modems, CableHome devices, SIP ATAs and SIP Voice Gateways, and it also can be extended to support other Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)-based devices, including non-DOCSIS cable modems.

Cisco Broadband Access Center

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