Consumer demand for Internet-based services has led to the widespread deployment of customer premise equipment (CPE) to provide various connectivity functions. The growth of home networking technologies has further expanded the range of devices installed at customer premises. The increased amount of voice, video and data traffic is driving the market for premise-based services. This growth is only expected to increase over time and the resulting costs of maintaining a complex assortment of CPE is also expected to increase. The cost of configuring new features and services on hardware network appliances is particularly burdensome because of the cost of sending technicians to customer sites.
Based on the foregoing, there is a need for an efficient approach to the remote management and support of network appliances installed at customer premises.